An unnamed woman from England claims to be first contacted by the fraudster after browsing a Facebook fan page, while police state that she was tricked at a 'very vulnerable' time in her life.
- Apr 30, 2019
AceShowbiz - An impostor pretending to be action star Jason Statham conned a British woman out of hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The unnamed woman from the north west of England told the BBC she was contacted by a fraudster claiming to be "The Meg" star after browsing a Facebook fan page, who then built up an online relationship using the WhatsApp messaging service.
She explained, "I thought 'Oh, that's nice of him, talking to his fans'. I might have been star-struck then, I don't know."
The woman, who had recently lost her mother and her fiance, exchanged hundreds of messages with the phony Jason over several months, believing the star loved her and needed help with financial difficulties as a film payment had been delayed.
According to the BBC, she transferred a life-changing sum over to the fraudster, totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds. In real life the 51-year-old star is engaged to the actress Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, 32. They have been dating since 2010.
The devastated victim blamed her actions on her struggles following the deaths of her loved ones, adding, "I don't feel like I was in the right place myself because of what I'd been through."
Detective Constable Craig Moylon of Greater Manchester Police said the victim had been tricked at a "very vulnerable" time in their life, and warned others to be careful online following an "epidemic" of similar fraud cases where people are extensively groomed online.
Several stars, including Idris Elba, Chris Pratt, Hugh Jackman, and Sia Furler, have all warned their fans to be wary of social media impostors posing as them on the internet.
