Ellen DeGeneres fans targeted in bizarre Facebook scam

Facebook fans of American talk show host Ellen DeGeneres have been targeted by a scammer posing as her manager.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, producers of The Ellen DeGeneres Show have filed a lawsuit against an anonymous individual, who – it is alleged – created fake email accounts and a Facebook profile in the name of Eric Gold, one of DeGeneres’s managers.

These accounts were then reportedly used to contact Facebook fans of Ellen telling them that they had been selected to appear on the TV show.

Hollywood Reporter published a typical message that “Eric Gold” had sent to a potential victim:

“You have been selected from members of the Ellen DeGenere’s Facebook Fan page to be on her talk show because of your comment on the ‘Halloween edition’. If you are interested in attending, this offer is an all…

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the anti-virus industry having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent security analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of computer security, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter at @gcluley, on Mastodon at @[email protected], or drop him an email.