Posted on 07/08/2024 11:56:52 AM PDT by nickcarraway
A 75-year-old Journey fan in Cleveland, Ohio was reportedly scammed out of $122,000 by an online imposter posing as Steve Perry.
According to WKYC, in January the woman responded to a Facebook message from someone claiming to be the band's former lead singer. According to Westlake police, "The fake Mr. Perry had a business opportunity and of course 'needed a woman in his life.'"
According to the police report, over the next several months the woman sent the Perry imposter $72,000 in wire transfers to "various persons in various different states, designated by 'Perry,' through her bank" as well as $50,000 in gift cards.
When the imposter began demanding pictures of her passports and driver's license, the woman realized she was being scammed and went to the Police. They are attempting to track down the criminal, and also advised the woman to report the scam to her bank and the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center.
Joe Elliott Offers Blunt Advice on Avoiding Rock Star Impersonator Scams Earlier this year, Def Leppard frontman Joe Elliott released a video warning fans against online imposters, who he said were "really starting to piss me off." He offered some blunt advice about how to spot these scams. “I don’t need your money, okay? I would never, ever ask you for money because my wife’s divorcing me or my leg fell off or I need a glass eye. It’s complete and utter horseshit. Anyone who sends you an email claiming that they’re me or they’re gonna take you on a date or… I don’t know, my house fell over, it’s not true!”
The Scammers section in hell will be a particularly nasty one. With that said what poor, weak, gullible people sending money and gifts over the internet to these fraudulent imposter thieves. Scammers punishments needs to be very harsh as a deterrent to other wannabe thieves.
Any fan page has 4-5 versions of each band member running these scams.
A friend of mine hired a contractor to do some home renovations. He went to his bank to withdraw $7000 to pay them (cash is king). All very legitimate.
The bank gave him a a hard time. Who are you paying? What is the money for?
My friend got upset. He’s a bit of a hothead. “Give me my money!” Which they did.
Afterwards I settled my friend down. The bank was trying to do the right thing by asking those questions. They are, in many ways, the last line of defense against filthy scammers. So be nice, and answer their questions.
My friend agreed. I was going to ask him to go back and apologize, but I figured I’d better quit while I was ahead.
Steve needs to be good to himself when nobody else will
“Mr. Perry, I just spoke to someone from New Delhi India. You sound just like him.”
Inspired by this all-time great clip from “The Newlywed Game”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rRaUSwUNbQ
> I feel sorry for woman but I can’t imagine being that stupid though to fork over that kind of dough. <
As scams go, this one was rather crude.
But some scams are very sophisticated. As an example, a scammer will send out an email blast claiming to be from Amazon. The email looks EXACTLY like a real one from Amazon - the only tip-off is the sender’s email is not Amazon’s. Most people don’t even look at that.
The email claims you are due a large refund from Amazon. Please enter your Amazon name and password. Sometimes they will even ask for your bank information. Then bad things happen.
Many older folks fall for this. I suppose the only consolation is that the younger generation will not be fooled as they grow older. They’re hep to the scene, as I like to say.
You mean that WASN’T Steve Perry that I gave my money to!? /s
No fool like an old fool....
Yet we’re supposed to believe that a bank gave $11 million to someone pretending to be a famous baseball player?
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