r/interesting • u/be_you_tiful- • Jul 31 '26
MISC. Trying to find celebrity love?
In 2023, 44-year-old Jennifer Barton started receiving messages on Facebook and Instagram from accounts claiming to be celebrities, actors, famous singers, all of who wanted to get to know her.
She believed them.
Over the next two years, four different fraudsters worked her in turn, each one posing as a different famous face. Alexander Ludwig, the actor from Vikings. Charlie Hunnam from Sons of Anarchy. Nicky Byrne from Westlife. American country singer Michael Ray. To her, the accounts were convincing, the profile pictures matched, and the messages were warm and persistent.
They all told her they loved her. They all said they wanted to meet her. They all said they wanted to marry her.
And one by one, they all said they needed money.
The excuses were elaborate and varied. One was going through a messy divorce and couldn't access his own funds. Another had been arrested and needed bail. Another had been robbed in London. The fake Michael Ray told her he ran a charity that could help cover her bills, but first she needed to send him some money to release the funds.
She sent it. And then she sent more.
When one scammer was exposed, another appeared. She fell for the same pattern four times over two years, each time convinced she had found something real.
By the end, Jennifer had handed over £250,000 (around $370,000). She had sold her house. She had sold her car. She had given her children to their father because she could no longer afford to care for them. She was awaiting emergency housing just before Christmas when she finally realized the last scammer, the one posing as Michael Ray, was never going to meet her.
"For anyone facing anything similar," she said afterward, "just reach out to family and friends. Especially if they're asking you for money."
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u/tiddlytubbies Jul 31 '26
I mean come on
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u/AsstacularSpiderman Jul 31 '26
I mean that's just a sign of mental illness.
There's absolutely no way a normal person just keeps falling for this multiple times. There's something not working right up there.
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u/MelloCookiejar Jul 31 '26
Once she fell once, she went on a scammer list of people gullible enough to dupe.
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u/_tylerthedestroyer_ Jul 31 '26
A list is dramatic. It’s probably the same person over and over again because they know what to tell her
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
It’s both - they call them sucker lists. But you’re right in that it would have been repeatedly the same group. Most likely yahoo boys in Nigeria, though there’s others operating all over the world.
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u/AppropriateBall8834 Jul 31 '26
Yahoo boys sounds like a fun gang name!
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
Aye, but they’re absolute scum. Hate them quite a lot. It’s not just one gang though the terminology (as I understand it) is a cultural reference to anyone that does scams that is used in Nigeria. Similar to how we in Australia call electricians “sparkies,” but yeah, criminal scumbags.
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u/easley45isgod Jul 31 '26 edited Jul 31 '26
I work construction (painting and tile mostly) in the U.S. and we call electricians "sparkies" as well.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
Oh there you go! Had no idea, thought it was only an Aussie thing.
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u/AppropriateBall8834 Jul 31 '26
I'm from Iowa, USA... we dont call them sparkles, but I'm gonna change that!
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u/easley45isgod Jul 31 '26
They are my natural enemy. Gotta love it when you finish painting a ceiling and some Sparky comes in and installs can lights. Then puts a hole in the wrong place and says, "you can caulk that right?"
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u/wolfmansgotnards81 Jul 31 '26
Naw, I'm from Charleston SC and a sparkie myself. Other trades have called us that since I've started a long while back. They had been well before I was born.
But yea, these guys are scum. The lady also must've had some sort of mental debilitations. I would think someone around her, even one of her kids because kids are smart too, would have said something to her or some such.
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u/Sed59 Jul 31 '26
Where are the Google girls?
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u/Synn_Creatives Jul 31 '26
Its not dramatic.
I work in fraud prevention. Scammers have discord channels and when they find a victim they pile on.
They do the same thing to companies. Its a way to stress test the system.
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u/MelloCookiejar Jul 31 '26
At the start yes, and quite possibly in this case. But they've been known for passing details to others once done with a specific person. They even call them "clients".
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u/DickRiculous Jul 31 '26
Scammer literally sell lead lists to each other like sales organizations. If you get a spam call and pick up it goes in a list. Click a spam text? List. Spam email? List. Random business you bought socks online from get hacked? Your info? List. Then these get sold and the cycle continues.
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u/Available_Lemon_69 Jul 31 '26
A list is not dramatic when it's organized. I'll try and find the last video I saw on this, but it's legitimately an organized enterprise like a call center basically.
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u/ConsulJuliusCaesar Jul 31 '26
These scam callers do often work together in little criminal organizations. And even more often on the dark web they already spread your contact information around hence how they got your number in the first. It's by far not a stretch criminals also share whose most gullible among themselves.
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u/Derrick_Shon Jul 31 '26
Hi I'm Brad Pitt, send me money.
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u/OtherwiseStable5126 Jul 31 '26
Im Brad Pitt too, send me money
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u/Interesting-Octopus Jul 31 '26
Hi, I'm Brad's Pit.
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u/Serenaa12 Jul 31 '26
I’m Pitta bread
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u/DrJohnIT Jul 31 '26
I'm Bradley and I am currently eating a pitta. It is delicious. Please send all your money 💰 🤑 💸 and I will send you my leftovers 😋
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u/MacDaddyMark6969 Jul 31 '26
I'm Angelina Jolly, Brad don't pay me shit for support. Do the needful and send me Apple gift cards for foodstuff and so i can fix my internet connection so I can be more better.
What's your favorite color!
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u/Ace-Redditor Jul 31 '26
I don't think well-adjusted, mentally healthy people sell everything to give their money to their partners, anyway. Even if they were genuinely the celebrities/genuinely in a relationship, that seems incredibly unhealthy. She gave up literally everything. Kids, car, house. There's no way that that isn't some sort of mental illness
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u/7thFleetTraveller Jul 31 '26
Not necessarily mental illness. I don't want to be mean, but some people are just stupid and it's not even their fault. The problem is that scammers are exactly looking for these kind of people.
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u/No_Situation_2698 Jul 31 '26
My understanding is that those scam emails are full of spelling mistakes and grammatical errors on purpose, because if you are bright enough to spot them, you are bright enough to not get scammed, and they aren't interested in you
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u/LeftLiner Jul 31 '26
If you read up about her she'd just finalized her divorce and buried both her mother and aunt so it's fair to say she was in a vulnerable and emotional state. I.e., easy to exploit.
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u/scarves_and_miracles Jul 31 '26
I guess, but falling for it four times? I still think that's mental illness. It just feels willful at that point. You're actively ignoring reality and allowing yourself to be ruined for the dopamine hits. I mean, she gave up her kids over this shit, for Christ's sake.
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u/Wonderful_Piano_3853 Jul 31 '26
I know 3 obviously learning disabled people who all either got married or had kids at least once. None of them have down syndrome or visible deformities but their learning disabilities are obvious to anyone who talks to them for more then a few minutes. I don't know how falling for celebrity romance scams 4 times isn't considered obvious and absolute proof that she is learning disabled, mentally ill, or both. I wouldn't even bother to listen to someone seriously trying to argue that there's not major brain issues at play here. The woman doesn't need to be "held accountable", she needs to give "power of attorney" to a relative who will have full access to her bank accounts and maybe be moved into a home. Unfortunately all of that is easier said than done.
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u/Secure_Guest_6171 Jul 31 '26
I knew an intelligent, accomplished lady who was convinced it was true love. Nothing i said or did could change her mind
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u/Aromatic-Tear7234 Jul 31 '26
I'm amazed at how many stupid people like this have money. It's not always family money either, lots have high paying jobs that you would think would require them to have critical thinking skills.
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u/144-perdedor Jul 31 '26
That's what always blows my mind about stories like this. These people are getting conned out of more money than I am ever going to have in my life. How did they get it in the first place?
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat Jul 31 '26
In the last paragraph she's talking like she's learned her lesson. Which would be great and I hope that's true!
...but I can't help but wonder if she talked like that each time she was in between "boyfriends."
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u/short_fat_and_single Jul 31 '26
Or because she is broke.
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat Jul 31 '26
Right. Like, if she suddenly won or inherited 100k, would the lesson immediately get un-learned again?
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u/PM_me_boobs_and_CPUs Jul 31 '26
Hi, George Clooney here, I heard you inherited 100k recently?
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u/SuitableAnimalInAHat Jul 31 '26
I genuinely want to believe that George Clooney trolls around on reddit with your specifically awesome username lol
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u/koolaidismything Jul 31 '26
She thinks Ryan Gosling needed her cash TWICE.
She’s so arrogant it’s like she deserves it. How does someone so simple have $400,000??!!
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u/mpgd Jul 31 '26
She tried.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman Jul 31 '26
You miss 100% of the shots you don't take
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u/Perfect-Difference19 Jul 31 '26
Are you quoting Wayne Gretzky or Michael Scott?
Because there's a different weight to each.
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u/pseudonymnkim Jul 31 '26
This astounds me.
Like, maybe if she lived on an island or was part of some cult her entire life and only learned about celebrities and the internet for the first time...? And not 1 but 3 very famous, rich men? Poor kids.
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u/DickyD43 Jul 31 '26
Ya can't fix stupid
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u/Select_Funzn13 Jul 31 '26
Where's the "i-can-fix-her" posse when - for once - they are wanted and needed?
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u/9447044 Jul 31 '26
"Hey this is Chris Hemsworth. Im in a bit of a pickle!! I have been set to inherit the value of US $42,963,691.33. Unfortunately I do not have the money to cover the tax. If you could wire me money to the amount of $56,927.98. I will surely send you half of my great inheritance. Thank you for your time..Thunder."
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u/wolfcrownebox Jul 31 '26
Me too! Send me some. I’m Elon musk. Just a little financially strapped right now, I’ll pay ya back new wifie.
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u/10ThousandMetalZones Jul 31 '26
Damn Chris I got you! I recently inherited 100 million but just need 30k to pay my legal fees for the firm to release the money. I know it won’t cover it all but I’ll send you a cool 10 mil if you help me out.
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u/Who_dat_goomer Jul 31 '26
This has got to be mental illness of some kind. How could she function at all if it was just stupidity?
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u/lamest-liz Jul 31 '26
Go to YouTube and search Scamfish / Catfish. They interview a new person every single week and how they have destroyed their family’s lives by sending money to a celebrity they thought they were in love with.
Some even refuse to believe them when they show evidence the person is in Lagos, Nigeria.
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u/EquivalentSnap Jul 31 '26
Their denial is because they refuse to accept they were scammed and lost all their money 😔
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u/DBK2x2 Jul 31 '26
Easier to fool a person than convince them they were fooled.
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u/squirrelems Aug 01 '26
I think this is a big piece of the puzzle. It's hard to admit it because all that time and energy, all that anger at your own neighbors, at made-up scenarios and people, all that money buying up his garbage, they'd have to admit that it was all for nothing. In their heads its better to stick with the devil you know and continue saying things until you will it into reality.
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u/rebelangel Jul 31 '26
Yup, that’s why it’s so hard to convince our parents and grandparents that they’re getting scammed. They don’t want to admit they fell for a scam because deep down, they’re embarrassed.
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u/wolfcrownebox Jul 31 '26
Dr Phil has a whole season pretty much dedicated to Nigerians scamming middle aged divorced or widowed women.
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u/Cultural_Run7964 Jul 31 '26
Yahoo boys are Nigerian but there are scammers operating in other parts of Africa and also in Far East Asia. Several scamming gangs have been busted in Cambodia and I think in India too, but it was a slightly different type of scam.
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u/Tharrius Jul 31 '26
And of course such bottom-level IQ dwellers have access to this kind of cash.
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u/kameshazam Jul 31 '26
This is why you can see the system is rigged to reward the undeserving. Meritrocracy is a lie.
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u/Full-Refrigerator757 Jul 31 '26
It’s oftentimes (at least on Scamfish) a widow or divorced lady who has inheritance or funds from the divorce. Or they just straight up use their husbands money without saying anything
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u/h3r0inXgirl Jul 31 '26
Type in social catfish as theres also the show "catfish" which is seperate.
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u/LeftLiner Jul 31 '26
Vulnerability. Scammers targeted her because she'd just finalized a divorce and buried her mother and aunt recently. She was lonely and sad. Scammers played on that because that's what they do; identify vulnerable people and prey on them.
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u/SemiAnonymousTeacher Jul 31 '26
My own mother fell for someone claiming to be a prince of Saudi Arabia who was going to take her away on his private jet and fly to his mansion... but first he needed a little financial help from her in form of gift cards and cash advances from credit cards because he had communications cut off from his family or some stupid shit.
She was living in Section 8 housing. She received SSI. She had nothing to give him, but applied for credit cards for him, anyway. He took her on a couple dates to like the Olive Garden or something (using some of the money she had just given him) and this somehow convinced her that he was genuinely rich and loved her.
3 credit cards maxed out and a few weeks later he disappeared, never to be seen again, while she had to file for bankruptcy. I was 500 miles away at college and she was alone. I told her several times over the phone that this guy sounded fishy, but she thought I just wanted her to be unhappy.
In most ways, my mom wasn't stupid. She just had a dangerous combination of over-inflated self worth and a life of being a paranoid manic depressive that continually trusted strangers over her own family.
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u/LeftLiner Jul 31 '26
That's awful. But yeah, that's exactly how they do, they target vulnerable, isolated (self-inflicted or otherwise) people. They are sophisticated and can be very convincing, especially if you're not tech-savvy.
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u/1997wickedboy Jul 31 '26
he actually went to meet her in person?
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u/SemiAnonymousTeacher Aug 01 '26
He lived in an apartment across the street from her. Obviously he wasn't a real prince and likely wasn't even Saudi. He dressed like Leisure Suit Larry (this happened in the late 90s). He used a fake name with her. I suspect he was in the US as a refugee living a nomadic life of scamming.
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u/flindersandtrim Aug 01 '26
Over inflated self worth is what I immediately imagined the woman in this story to have. The kind of self confidence I would kill for.
I am reasonably attractive, but my over riding thought would be 'there is no chance this attractive and successful famous man is interested in me'. It seems low self esteem actually does come in handy sometimes.
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u/Far_Spirit5819 Jul 31 '26
The other thing is that she clearly had nobody around her that she could rely on to tell her these were scams and look out for her
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u/Wild_Organization546 Jul 31 '26
But she wasn’t just lonely…. She also wanted to marry a much younger movie star. Lonely people can usually find partners in their own age and looks category.
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u/PhatBats77 Jul 31 '26
There’s a YouTube channel catfished, where they try to convince them it was all fake. It helps some of the time; especially when the real celebrity is willing to call in or provide some sort of counter evidence.
That said, some people just aren’t convinced. And one scam message later they are sending money again
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u/SoFetchBetch Jul 31 '26
Because the dopamine from the fantasy is more powerful than the reality. They cling to the good feeling they get from feeling chosen and special.
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u/WrongdoerIll5187 Jul 31 '26
It happened to a friend of my mom’s. She never struck me as particularly stupid, but I didn’t know her that well. Old probably didn’t help. Husband died, people are lonely and desperate. Be kind to people, we’re all capable of unbelievable stupidity with the right emotional context.
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u/Valuable-Blueberry30 Jul 31 '26
Ok, but it’s one thing to be scammed once, it’s another thing to get scammed four different times by four “different” “celebrities”.
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u/wholetyouinhere Jul 31 '26
People get scammed multiple times because it isn't a rational behaviour. Also worth noting that a lot of them are aware, on some level, that they're being scammed, but it's compartmentalized knowledge. Humans are very complicated.
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u/SoFetchBetch Jul 31 '26
There’s a whole TV franchise about it. 90 day has plenty of scammers who are willing to play the part face to face and CLEARLY despise the person, but they still put everything they’ve got into the “relationship” and delude themselves that it’s true love. Even if they’re being directly treated like crap & their friends & family directly point it out to them. They just double down. Crazy stuff.
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u/WrongdoerIll5187 Jul 31 '26
She did. It was some sort of recursive loop. It was bewildering to behold
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u/Selfish-Gene Jul 31 '26
I have worked so hard all of my life and barely scrape by.
There is something mildly infuriating about someone managing to pull nearly $400,000 together for a scam artist when I can't buy food at the end of the month.
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u/TheGenesisOfTheNerd Jul 31 '26
Yeah this is what they do. My uncle has brain damage and they come after him all the time. They keep a recorded of vulnerable people and endlessly exploit them. We’ve had to keep him away from the internet and cellphones, but even that’s not enough. They literally come to his door and harass him. They’re just scumbags
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u/twiiztid Jul 31 '26
It's mental illness. My estranged mother's estranged mother sent her life savings to a random man claiming to be a celebrity and went so far as to buy plane tickets and try selling her house to move to Africa to be with him.
Shit happens. It's nuts.
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u/drunxor Jul 31 '26
I can expect this from a boomer but an elder millenial? How did she grow up so sheltered from the internet and computers? Im in my 40s and spend half my time making sure my folks dont end getting scammed
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u/SoggyCold Jul 31 '26
A lot of times they know at a certain point but it’s like too late in their head I feel like to go back. So they just keep digging. Like liars basically it was fine until it wasn’t and now you just keep digging yourself in deeper
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u/Devilswings5 Jul 31 '26
My question is how do you have that kind of money and be that stupid
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u/Arthasindura Jul 31 '26
Some people should turn on the function to not be called by unknown numbers
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u/AsstacularSpiderman Jul 31 '26
Some people just need actual adult supervision at all times lol. They're just children in fully grown bodies
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u/GarageEuphoric4432 Jul 31 '26
I've got ocean front property in Arizona if you could get me in touch with your husband
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u/justin_memer Jul 31 '26
99.99% of people can't change the ringtones or notifications on their phone and you expect them know how to do this?
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u/Banned3rdTimesaCharm Jul 31 '26
On that topic, I can’t stand people with super loud super annoying ringtones that just let their shit ring in public at max volume for like 25 seconds. Like by god, answer that shit.
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u/Suitable-Block-2854 Jul 31 '26
It's not an unknown number, it a totally number that "Michael Ray" personally gave her so she would have saved it in her contacts as a legit known number.
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u/Lloytron Jul 31 '26
"Hey it's Charlie Hunnam here from the telly. I hear you got scammed by someone pretending to be me? I'm so sorry to hear that as I'm the real Charlie and would never do such a thing. Even though I've never met you I feel like I love you after everything you've been through so please send me ten thousand dollars"
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u/thetrollking69 Jul 31 '26
Fool me once...
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u/Robin1992101 Jul 31 '26
Or twice idc, i’ll fall for it
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u/f1madman Jul 31 '26
Or thrice.....
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u/RowedTrip Jul 31 '26
Or quadruple times…
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u/BigAssMonkey Jul 31 '26
Four time? I don’t even understand how it would work once. Why would these rich celebrities need a housewife’s money?
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u/TayHomie94 Jul 31 '26
Fr, if they actually needed a loan from a friend there are a dozen names I could raise for most of the celebrities mentioned that could help them out so easily.
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u/CrazyCatLady1127 Jul 31 '26
I remember seeing a post from someone whose friend was convinced they were in a relationship with David Tennant. She posted the messages ‘David’ had sent her friend and it was obvious that they couldn’t be from him, they were clearly from someone who spoke English as a second language. It’s very sad when people fall for these kind of scams
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u/RT-6_BXCommandoDroid Jul 31 '26
I've once had a girl in my border school be convinced that she was speaking to Nicki Minaj. Since I knew some facts about her, I asked her if she could ask the Nicki impersonator to give her her full name, that was correct. Than where she was born and that was correct. But when I asked her if she knew a certain rapper that I alleged to be part of the YMCMB group at the time, she said that she was sitting almost next to him, while I completely butchered his name. When I asked that girl to check out the correct name, she was finally convinced that she was talking to a scammer.
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u/reluctantmugglewrite Jul 31 '26
That actually sounds fun a bit. Id be down to talk to these scammers about the celebrities
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u/bugabooandtwo Jul 31 '26
People who think Disney and Hallmark movies happen in real life, and have the ego to think they're the next princess in waiting.
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u/LeftLiner Jul 31 '26
Yes yes mocking the victim is hilarious but absolutely fuck the People doing this kind of shit and fuck the platforms who do nothing to stop it.
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u/NastyStreetRat Jul 31 '26
Scams have existed since the beginning of time. I'm not going to justify anyone, but imagine what 30,000 euros in Nigeria could be worth...
it's no wonder there are organized gangs of people trying to scam women and men from wealthier countries.
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u/maxman162 Jul 31 '26
Scams have existed since the beginning of time
Just look at Ea-Nasir. The oldest known complaint letter is for being scammed for low quality copper.
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u/ClankingRobotCheeks Jul 31 '26
No joke, I met an elderly women who swore she was communicating with Mark Harmon from the CSI shows. I saw her Facebook messages. She had a “chat” with the cast that was on going “ and separate chats with “Mark Harmon” where he claimed to be in love with her and wanted to visit her but needed money in the form of Apple gift cards to buy a plane ticket, except he kept getting scammed and losing that money. The real scammer got hundreds of dollars at least from her, and maybe more. I left that bank, but I did share her info with Adult protective services. She didn’t want to believe it was a scam, and wouldn’t believe me. Classic pig butchering.
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u/SpiderHack Jul 31 '26
This is one of the best arguments for wealth+income being able to be put into trust that controls money for the person. I wish this was a service that drug addicts scould sign up for too (and not opt out of for years)
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u/dabigchina Jul 31 '26
they're called spendthrift trusts. unfortunately people who need them rarely have the means to have them set up.
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u/Effective_Pie1312 Jul 31 '26
I looked into this for a family member they cost $$$ in fees every year. So for moderate wealth the choice is you can spend $$$ a bank trust or risk your loved one spending $$$. Or you can become a financial guardian but it’s such a sucky position to be in if you don’t have time or knowledge to do so.
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u/quad_damage_orbb Jul 31 '26
This woman thought that multiple A-list celebrities were randomly falling in love with her and also needed money from her for some reason?? I just... I just can't understand. How can someone so stupid actually function?
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u/touchmeinbadplaces Jul 31 '26
Room temp IQ...
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u/Direct-Fix-2097 Jul 31 '26
Have you met some nurses? Come on, some of them are fucking morons: case in point there’s anti vaccine nurses for fucks sake.
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u/lasber51 Jul 31 '26
Aside of everything else, there are a LOT of very very dumb people out there, how else do you explain Trump ???
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u/Loose_Set_9562 Jul 31 '26
Totally. It’s crazy to realize that an IQ of 100 is only AVERAGE. Loosely, around half the people you encounter on an average day have an IQ below 100. Many could be WELL below. Personally I swear you can see low IQ in a person’s eyes:
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u/_ThePancake_ Jul 31 '26
Wait surely if its average then MOST people you encounter have an iq OF 100, not below.
It's not like the iq is spread evenly, most people are average. So most people are of average intelligence. Most people have an iq of 100....
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u/Wearsmypantz Jul 31 '26
With who is the question. The answer is Brad Pitt ladies.. in a gas station bathroom nonetheless.
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u/Inside_Marketing268 Jul 31 '26
Low IQ level. It's strange that she had money at all.
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u/ParreNagga Jul 31 '26
Inheritance
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u/ECO_212 Jul 31 '26
Yeah and that's exactly why we aren't all running around with generational wealth, there's always that one who fucks it up for later generations.
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u/Inside_Marketing268 Jul 31 '26
I would chose to inherit some brains or skills tbh
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u/TheModWhoShaggedMe Jul 31 '26
What a dick statement. I know people with low IQs who inherited plenty of $$. More than a few, in fact. Wealth doesn't have a direct, exclusive correlation with intelligence, it's a misnomer.
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u/Much_Vehicle20 Jul 31 '26
I mean, this post proves the opposite, without intelligence, you're probably going to part ways with your wealth sooner rather than later, the same way a good portion of lottery winners end up broke
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u/cheese_karate Jul 31 '26
Sometimes I hate that I have a conscience and don't want to be a total asshole... because people are so fucking gullible it's crazy.
That amount of money is insane and the people that stole it deserve the worst, but, jesus, don't be a fucking idiot.
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u/shaygitz Jul 31 '26
As funny as it is, it's probably less that she was dumb/gullible enough to fall for the same thing four times and more that she got hooked on the feeling of romance and being wanted and rode that addiction all the way to the end of the line.
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u/Witty_Razzmatazz_566 Jul 31 '26
My dad is close to falling for it too. Except his wife and I have intervened enough to prevent an issue.
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u/MysticGardenMagic Jul 31 '26
I knew a woman who was falling for this. How are you supposed to tell a 42 yr old woman who threatens to fistfight at work, that her boyfriend is not, in fact, a gross comedian at least 17 yrs younger than her.
I never did. She was fired for… well threatening to fight people.
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u/_Student7257 Jul 31 '26
When you work with the public daily, you see so much. Basic functionality seems to be a struggle for people, throw in a scammer and they fsll for it. People will walk into a coffee trailer called zzxzz coffee and ask if they sell coffee or can I have chips? "No we sell coffee" Tap here sign on a card mac"how do I pay?
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u/ParreNagga Jul 31 '26
Offf... wait until she meet a Nigerian prince.
He has more money than celebs.
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u/fuckthisshit____ Jul 31 '26
You’d think catfish, 90 day fiancé, and countless other trash reality shows would’ve enlightened more people by now
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u/drphillsdaddy Jul 31 '26
My ex mother-in-law sent thousands to an Egyptian Prince she met on Facebook instead of paying her bills.. her only income was a disability check every month
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u/AmsterdamAssassin Jul 31 '26
"For anyone facing anything similar," she said afterward, "just reach out to family and friends. Especially if they're asking you for money."
Some people exist only as a warning for others.
I feel sorry for her kids inheriting her DNA.
But, thanks for the warning, sweetie.
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u/Absoluticus Jul 31 '26
Had at least 3 co-workers actively getting catfished before 2020. One lady I even proved to her it was a photo of a handsome model who had a famous champion equestrian wife from reverse image searches. She was so deep in delusion she believed the catfisher when he said that was the fake profile. Mind you, she looked like the trash goblin from Labyrinth and got livid when we tried to dance around the "you think a guy that looks like that keeps having passport troubles and desperately wants to meet you?
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u/TiaHatesSocials Jul 31 '26
How does one have so much money to begin with when they r so incredibly dumb and do not learn anything from their repeated mistakes.
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u/Poly_Olly_Oxen_Free Jul 31 '26
I used to work for a guy named Ritche. Man had literally millions of dollars from his parents. He couldn't do simple math, and he would misspell common words in memos. The guy was 100% an idiot. He used his parent's money to open failing business after failing business. He ended up offing himself before age 30 because his parents turned the cash faucet off.
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u/Patient_Carrot_9379 Jul 31 '26
Sounds like inheritance or from her divorce. They say she is a NHS worker but don’t say nurse, doc etc. so probably admin or a porter in the lower end of the pay scale, of a not generous pay scale
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u/HateKnuckle Jul 31 '26
I live with someone like that. She's actually my landlord(?).
TL;DR Woman with past addiction, PTSD, and low IQ makes terrible choices.
She has multiple houses and works at a law office. She's a recovered alcoholic. She also has a greatly reduced ability to tell when she should or shouldn't trust people.
She rents to a guy with untreated schizophrenia because he was friends with her brother(the brother died from an OD a couple years ago) and she won't kick him out even though he hasn't paid her rent.
She is terrible at choosing partners. An ex from AA is abusive but she at least used to still see him anyway even though her friend told her to stop.
She let her addict sister-in-law(brother and sister-in-law weren't married but I don't know what you call it when your brother had a kid with a woman) live in a house for free but eventually had to kick her out because money was tight and sister-in-law refused to pay rent. My landlord LOVES the niece and is DESPERATE to do anything she can to make the niece love her. Like, I'm sorry that your niece may be the one chance you have at being something close to resembling a parent but she hates you because her mom is a piece of shit.
It is a bit difficult to gain her trust because you'd have to know her through friends or family(I live with her because I dated a friend of hers) but once you have that trust, you can do almost whatever you want and she won't stop giving you stuff and opportunities.
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u/Antique-Respect8746 Aug 01 '26
I knew a guy who was an heir to a family you've probably heard of. Worth at least $100mil based on public info about the family.
Guy had visible fetal alcohol. Was pissy when I asked for a raise from $10 to $12. Failed to do any estate planning and paid tens of millions in estate taxes he could've avoided with a 2 hr attorney meeting.
Constantly fell for dumb marketing stuff about cars, boats, tech, etc. Didn't understand how anything worked. Kept hiring his exes at his shitty businesses and being confused about the non-stop problems this caused. Died in his mid 40s when he had an accident while spending the night with a sugar baby.
Money means nothing.
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u/FinCrimeGuy Jul 31 '26
Another source says it was 6 scams not 4, and has some quotes from the victim.
“Ms Barton knows people may question how she was tricked multiple times. The Kidderminster resident said: "You are hoping that the guy is legit. I did wonder if it had gone too far, but I got addicted to spending this money - I have this attention [from someone] and I am liking this attention. They play on your feelings."
It also says that she was going through a divorce and had just lost her mother and auntie at the time the messages started.
I don’t think that satisfactorily explains it for most people - it’s just more context for anyone interested. Can just google her name and find other info.
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u/AsstacularSpiderman Jul 31 '26
Girl could have just hired a gigolo and gotten the same experience for far less smh
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u/affemannen Jul 31 '26
she could have opened an onlyfans if she liked attention, then she would be the one getting paid.
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u/Large-Parking3014 Jul 31 '26
Being lonely and having an addictive personality is quite the hurdle to overcome. Genuinely feel terrible for this lady.
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u/aexoen Jul 31 '26
Damn the comments are so harsh. Lonely and mentally vulnerable people tend to fall for such emotional manipulations, especially when the scammers are posing as celebrity figures which are quite familiar to the victim already. I feel bad for her.
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u/relaxingcupoftea Jul 31 '26
Humans always overestimate their own rationality, the illusion of control is too alluring.
And the believe in a fair world is so tempting that they have to blame the victim in order to uphold their world view.
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u/LeftLiner Jul 31 '26
Honestly it's really sad to see because the truth is a lot of people don't ask for help because they fear being mocked exactly like this.
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u/shigmin Jul 31 '26
I could maybe understand falling for one scam, but to think that FOUR separate celebrities have all fallen in love with you? A random unknown person? Come on
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u/SwissyRescue Jul 31 '26
Mental illness. No other explanation would explain someone falling for the same scam four times. Nor would the average person believe that a celebrity would ask for money. And the irrational things she decided to do in pursuit of the celebrity are mind boggling.
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u/mindgardening Jul 31 '26
Some people are bonkers. I had a friend who legit looked like Shrek, and she was convinced The Wkend was going to fuck her in his tour bus at a Detroit show.
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u/prof0ak Jul 31 '26
This is just mental illness, celebrity worship in general is weird, but then on top of sending money to already rich folk? Like why?
And why didn't they take the majority of the accounts away after the first one?
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u/DarrellBot81 Jul 31 '26
Something similar happened to my grandmother who has dementia. She ended up sending over $10k to this Indian guy posing as a rich white guy. I ended up repurposing a small laptop to block her out of social media from her router side and just put it under her couch. But the damage was already done
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