Kiwi actor Sam Neill has issued a dramatic warning to fans over dozens of social media accounts impersonating him in attempted love scams.
Jurassic Park star Neill, 75, shared the warning to Instagram via his assistant on Thursday, alerting his 530,000 followers to a series of scams that are attempting to extract cryptocurrency or cash from his fans in exchange for roles in Jurassic Park, romance or diamond rings.
“Sam has asked me to post on here to share with his followers an idea of the number of fake Sam Neill accounts out there on Instagram. The ONLY real Sam Neill account is this one — with the blue verified tick (circled in the image),” the post read.
The post detailed dozens of fraudulent accounts. Photo / Instagram
“Sam will never contact you on social media from an unverified account. ‼️ That’ll be a scammer‼️ He will never write to you to ask you to continue the conversation on another platform (WhatsApp/Telegram/Hangouts etc). ‼️S.C.A.M.M.E.R.‼️”
Love scams, also known as romance scams, have risen to prominence in recent years. In the sometimes years-long ploys, a scammer will feign romantic interest in their victim in order to obtain affection, goods and services.
Sam Neill and director Rachel Griffiths on the set of the movie Ride Like A Girl. Photo / Supplied
Australian Indigenous community leader and former Greens candidate Donna Nelson is currently detained in Japan over alleged drug trafficking in connection to a two-year-long romance scam, while Aussie MAFS star Mishel Karen and her family lost hundreds of thousands in a separate ploy.
Impersonating celebrities is a particularly common method for scammers, given fans often have an existing level of trust and affection towards the star.
Neill’s post detailed a number of elaborate romance and crypto scams reportedly used against his followers — and insisted he definitely wasn’t reaching out to start a romantic relationship.
“Sam will never use social media to ask you for bitcoin, money to get out of a foreign jail or for you to send a Western Union transfer to attend a private event with him. ‼️Definitely a scammer‼️,” the post said.
“He won’t be trying to send you a diamond ring from Sri Lanka (that you then need to pay customs fees for) ‼️That scammer is at it again‼️
“Sam doesn’t have a private account he keeps secret from his social media team, so he can to speak directly to followers ‼️Scammer at work here‼️
Sam Neill in RAMS. Photo / David Dare Parker
“He definitely isn’t having an online romantic relationship with you. ‼️That’s the trash bag scammer wasting your time, potentially breaking your heart and disappearing with your money ‼️”
The award-winning actor gave a scathing account of the scammers’ operations, saying: “Their sole purpose is exploiting people’s weaknesses and lonely hearts.”
“Thank you to all of you out there commenting on photos and enjoying Sam’s content,” the post finished.
“He often reads your comments and loves the engagement (but he’s definitely not following that up with a personal hello from a random fan page where he spells his own name incorrectly ‼️SCAMMER ALERT‼️).
“Please continue to report the fake accounts that contact you; it helps a lot and will continue to make Instagram a safer place for everyone.”
