I can't tell if scammers these days are getting more creative. Maybe people are just getting dumber. Regardless, impersonating a celebrity proves to be easy money for many trying to scoop up a quick buck. Now, one person gets away with scamming a woman in Massachusetts by impersonating country's own Vince Gill.
Recently, a podcast titled Scammer Stories details a story in which a scammer dupes a Massachusetts mom out of tons of money. Her daughter Jackie tells the tale, explaining her mother's bizarre behavior. She becomes secretive and mysterious, causing the daughter to become suspicious. During Christmas, Jackie scrambles through mom's phone to investigate.
Eventually, Jackie finds texts on Google, suggesting her mom is talking to "the real Vince Gill." Clearly, the mom desperately yearns to connect with one of her favorite artists, given the comments on social media. The daughter explains, ""She was following the real Vince Gill. I'm sure it's a managed account, not him. She commented 'Oh we love you in Boston! We hope you come to Boston.' After looking at that, we can see that other people had liked it, and then we started looking at people that were following my mother. They were fake Vince Gill accounts. Things like 'official' but the 'L' was a one instead of the 'L.'"
The Vince Gill Scammer Bleeds Poor Woman's Funds Dry
Unforunately, by the time the rest of the family scrambles to get poor mom out of the trap, all of her money is effectively gone. The scammer masquerading as Vince Gill uses a pretty scummy story to wrangle in some big money too. "They had this sob story, which was that [Vince's] wife, Amy Grant, was divorcing him because he was being accused of raping a young girl in a hotel. And that this girl wanted $350,000 to keep quiet that this ever happened," Jackie details.
The scammer ravages the mom's 3 accounts, including retirement savings. To prohibit the scammer from ruining anyone else's life, Jackie reaches out to Vince Gill's PR team. However, they don't respond. They either don't care or want nothing to do with it.
Ultimately, I plead for people to use their common sense. These celebrities don't need your money, not Vince Gill or anybody for that matter. If they're really itching for funds, they aren't contacting you directly for donations.
