A Hamilton Township woman who thought she was communicating with Hollywood actor Keanu Reeves over social media was scammed out of $2,700, Northumberland OPP said.
The woman told police she began communicating with a person who she believed to be Reeves last month by Twitter. The person indicated that he was in Turkey on a movie set, police said.
The person later requested money, police said, indicating that the Turkish government was restricting access to his funds.
Believing the scammer’s pitch, she withdrew $2,700, police said, and went to a Western Union outlet to transfer the funds to the man.
The staff attempted to convince her that she was being defrauded and refused to transfer the money, police said.
She then went to her own bank and staff there also tried to talk her out of it but eventually completed the transfer on her insistence.
Once she realized she had been defrauded, she contacted the Northumberland OPP detachment
Read the full story over at IFP Press.
This story was summarized by Canadian Fraud News Inc.
Marina Burghard writes for Canadian Fraud News about fraud-related cases, whistleblower, jurisdiction, identity theft, consumer protection, etc. – essentially about scams and how to protect yourself against this kind of fraudulent criminal behavior. She holds a Master’s degree in Political Science where her interest in criminology grew. Besides fraud, Marina’s scientific interest lies in terrorism, extremism and how to deal with it as a society.
We live in Washington State, USA. My mother has been corresponding with ‘Keanu Reeves’ for about a month, last week while she went to another town to go shopping she went to a Western Union and was trying to send $750. US dollars to him, and in return he would give her $950 thousand dollars. Fortunately, mom does not have valid unexpired ID and Western Union wouldn’t do it. my mother in law tried to tell her on the trip over that this was a scam.
In the meantime Adult Protective services had been called, a sheriff came to speak w/ mom and told her it was a scam, she said she didn’t believe the sheriff, but she did trust him. I kept chatting w/ mom on Facebook Messenger trying to bring out more information, one comment she made was that ‘Keanu’ was out of minutes on his phone and had to go to Walmart and purchase more minutes. RED FLAG #2. I My mother is almost 80 yrs. and she spends most of her time on line.
Anyone have any suggestions for me? I’ve spoken to the bank of which I am also on her account, but only a note could be posted on her account, no suspecious activity could be flagged, so that wouldn’t do much good. Thank you
I’m glad this site is here. I’m currently talking to whom I believe may be the same person. I can show a clip of our conversation. Luckily I have it saved.
Email me and I can show you the conversation.
We need to stop this individual and save Mr. Reeves good name. I even have the clip that he is using for bait. I saved everything. ?
I had this same situation. He tagged me on Facebook…texted me a few times. I noticed the grammar was bad and some things didn’t make sense. Every time I would ask a question I never got a straight answer. Here’s the catch…they always ask who you live with or if you have a pet. They ask if you are married. They ask for a picture of your pet. Mine is a pit! The guy tried to get me to give to his charity and I asked what the name is and he would not give it just said many…didn’t I know. I asked for my photo. Wish I had not done that. These same individuals prey on women on sites for singles.They still identity and use photos they probably got from scamming. He lastly asked if he could send me a fan club card. I knew the next thing would be my address…he caught on that I was aware and blocked me on facebook. The profile on facebook is still there. I did catch his phone number… its 2348141720524. It’s probably disposable.
I live in WA State USA and he has been contacting me since Saturday. Bad English, incorrect facts, and now he wants me to send money to an account for a charity foundation. I at first thought I was talking to him, but have figured out it’s not him. He freaked me out by saying he cared about me and has missed me??? WTF? I have been playing him for a day, but he gets bossy when he doesn’t get the answer he is looking for. I am about to cut him loose, but the telephone number is 1-323-320-5414 on Whatsapp and it shows his picture…LOL…I told him I am engaged so he went from romantic to I have a charity and you are a good woman. Hahaha! Good luck gals, this guy is a scammer who lives out of the country for sure!