A man lost his house after being conned by someone pretending to be WWE star Liv Morgan.
Morgan – real name Gionna Daddio – has urged her fans to be careful online after hearing devastating stories of crooks tricking people out of money.
In a post to Twitter, the 27-year-old revealed that one guy actually lost his home as a result of a scammer contacting him.
She said: "Guys I’ve been sent so many emails of horror stories about people making fake accounts and emails pretending to be me and asking for huge amounts of money.
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"This really makes me so sad. Please don’t use my name to con people out of their hard-earned money. Please please please.
"A man sold his home and lost everything thinking he was helping 'me'. This has me so sick.
"Please know I would never reach out to ask any of you for a single penny. I’m so sad. Please stop."
In the comments, Morgan's followers shared their own experiences of being approached by thieves.
One person said: "I report accounts everyday. As soon as one account is deleted, the scammers starts a new one.
"I had one guy reach out to me three times in a row in 30 minutes as a fake Roman (Reigns) because he didn't know I was the one getting his accounts banned that fast. I told him by the third."
Another added: "I didn’t sell my house but I was scammed myself 3 yrs ago and I’m still paying for it. So I guess I’m just as gullible but this person portrayed themselves to be another WWE superstar.
"Long story short, fraudulent check and I’m paying for it."
Earlier this year, Brits were warned to be on guard for a scam doing the rounds on WhatsApp.
Lloyds Bank issued a warning to people who use WhatsApp after the number of scams on the platform saw a massive increase in just one year.
WhatsApp is a popular choice for both one-to-one and group messaging for millions of people, but its popularity unfortunately also makes it a target for scammers.
Analysis released by Lloyds Bank determined WhatsApp scams are 'now the fastest growing form of impersonation fraud', with victims losing an average of around £1,950 each as the total number of scams reported as starting on WhatsApp soared by more than 2,000 percent between 2020 and 2021.
Lloyds explained that while fraudsters impersonating a bank, the police or an institution still account for 'the vast majority of reported impersonation fraud', there are an increasing number of cases in which the scammer pretends to be a loved one in need of help.
Scammers are said to start off by sending the same initial message to lots of different numbers in the hope they will receive a response. If they do, they then pretend to be a family member who lost their phone or who is messaging from a new phone, hence a new number.
Topics: Crime, Technology, WWE
Dominic Smithers