A Karl Urban impersonator has been caught sending a video to a fan claiming "Its me.. I'm not a scammer".
An impersonator purporting to be Kiwi Hollywood star Karl Urban is trying to scam fans out of thousands of dollars.
The elaborate scam has included a woman in New Zealand he contacted online being called a “babe” and offered a one-on-one meeting for $5000.
A digitally altered video was produced to make it look like Urban - star of Hollywood blockbusters Dredd, Red, Star Trek Into Darkness and Star Trek Beyond - describing the woman as his “No 1 fan”.
The deepfake clip features a voice with an American accent.
As Urban’s agents confirmed they were aware of “cybercriminals” trying to cash in on the actor’s profile, a woman who has been in lengthy online dialogue with the impersonator went public on his scamming style.
Kylie Kast said the first contact was when she received a request from the supposed Karl Urban to join her in an online music game.
But after he sent her an image of himself that she later found on the actor’s Instagram page from two years prior, she realised things weren’t as they seemed.
Still, they continued speaking and when Kast and her husband were due to travel to LA, she says she asked if he would like to meet them.
“He goes, oh, well, for security reasons, you know, if I did, what you could do is, just to protect you and to protect me, you can purchase a VIP pass.”
While she said she would “think about it”, Kast told the Herald once the holiday started she didn’t, yet he continued to ask whether she would buy the “VIP pass”.
Kast told the Herald things changed in July when Urban posted on Instagram saying he was returning to New Zealand due to the US writers’ strike.
At this point, she said the impersonator invited her to Auckland to see him.
“‘Just purchase the VIP card’ [he said], and I said, well how much is it, and he said $5000 and I went, no way man. There’s no way I’m paying $5000 to meet you. I wouldn’t even pay $500.”
Some of the messages from the Karl Urban impersonator.
In response, she claimed he told her he donated it to “starving children”.
A few days later she said he again urged her to pay for the pass so they could meet.
Although she had long since realised things weren’t right, and put it to him that he was trying to scam her, she agreed to video call him.
While the person on the call looked like Urban, she said he had an American accent and when she addressed this he cut off the call.
He also sent her a video which she said was digitally altered.
“In it, he says this is a shout-out to my No 1 fan, Kylie. This is not a scam, I love you.”
Tamar Munch, who looks after public relations for Johnson & Laird Management, said Urban does not solicit money from people online through the game or any other online platforms.
“Unfortunately we have also had instances recently of cybercriminals trying to solicit money from people by creating fake profiles of Karl’s representatives including his NZ agent, Imogen Johnson.
“These have also been reported to social platforms as scams, although the companies can be slow to act on take-down requests and often new fake profiles will pop up as quickly as old ones are removed.”
Munch said they hope fans would be extra vigilant around this type of activity.
