A British fan of actor Jason Statham was fooled into thinking she had formed an online relationship with the Hollywood hard man, after joining a Facebook fan page for the “Fast and Furious” star.
As BBC News reports, the unnamed woman from the North West of England – who was feeling vulnerable after the death of both her mother and fiancé – was tricked into giving a fraudster “hundreds of thousands” of pounds.
The woman said she was first contacted online by someone posing as Mr Statham while she was on a Facebook page dedicated to the Fast and Furious star.
“I thought ‘Oh, that’s nice of him, talking to his fans’. I might have been star-struck then, I don’t know,” she said.
The fraudster then encouraged her to use the encrypted WhatsApp service, sending her hundreds of messages over several months.
The woman said it felt like she was building a relationship with the actor, although looking back “I don’t feel like I was in the right place myself because of what I’d been through”.
The fraudster posing as Mr Statham told her he loved her and eventually asked her to help with some financial difficulties, claiming a film payment was delayed.
She then made a series of payments to the fraudster, totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds.
My heart goes out to the poor woman who fell for this heartless fraudster, and I wonder how many others might have fallen for similar scams but felt too embarrassed to come forward.
Hard-nosed readers of this blog might find it hard to imagine that anyone could be duped into wiring thousands of pounds to someone they’ve never met, but the truth is that we’re all human. We’re all capable of making mistakes. And if we’ve been shaken by a traumatic event, how many of us can put our hands on our hearts and say that sometimes we might not make some pretty poor decisions?
We should all take care to look out for friends, family members, co-workers, acquaintances who might be vulnerable to scammers and fraudsters.
For more discussion on this topic, be sure to listen to our “Smashing Security” podcast:
Smashing Security #126: 'Zombie chickens and fast-food victims'
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts | Other... | RSS
More episodes...
Do not agree. State of traumatic health Irrelevant. It would never EVER happen to me Probably because I am of Latin extraction and to us money and its preservation and retention for FAMILY needs o is sacrosanct.
You give someone who you have never met andwho has never spoken to you on screen live but who claims he is Jason Statham and needs money repeat needs money!!??
And you give him hundreds of thousands repeat hundreds of thousands of pounds??!!
on the basis of some spurious piece of texting?!
The woman is clearly deranged and she deserves all she gets.
Hi my name's Michelle and I had a message from someone claiming to be Jason Statham he has been sending messages for about 3 weeks trying to build up a relationship with me.he has now asked me to help pay for an apartment please what should I do.
I think you know what you need to do. :(
The real actor Jason Statham does not need your help to pay for an apartment.
Take good care of yourself, and don't let this person scam you.
Is the real jason Statham in Taiwan doing a movie.cause i have had enough of these fake people
You should always demand a video chat. Jason Statham doesn’t need anyone’s money!! Reverse image checks will say if these photos are being used to scam gullible women!
As one of the worlds most marketable action thrill movies he’s made, it would be more likely that you would ask him for $!
Yes most Women fantasize about being this heart throb of a man!! Ask yourself would he have the need to seek women on line when he is surrounded by beautiful women, actresses, models. He’s also engaged to a Victoria secrets model 20 yrs his junior.
Okay just a little update. Would he be romancing some he doesn’t know if they are real..🤔
I've been chatting with I thought was Jason Statham and he said that he was in Taiwan and he breached his contract on a movie and he needed me to get $2,500 for his flight ticket to send him back to the states. What's up with that situation?
Fidus amor caveat emptor
A Fool and their Money always soon parted
When Scammers sell Stairway to Heavens for the Broken-hearted.
The Foolish are tempted by the Greed of buying Love discounted
And Double down on a lie they believed that they doubted.
When Realization overcomes Faith always Oblivious
All that's left is a Bank account both Empty and Obvious.
Does Jason Statham need someone to send him money for his flight ticket from Taiwan
I am receiving emails from this imposter and he is threatening to kill me and my family because I showed him this article. He has made numerous threats of violently killing me and making me suffer. I made a police report and also reported him to google. To this day he continues to create new email addresses and send me awful things. He has not asked me for any money. He threatened me for calling his bluff