Yesterday all celebrities who have not paid yet, lost their Legacy Blue Tick on their Twitter Accounts. Is that good news or bad news for the battle against scammers? Only time will tell I guess.
Most probably the owner of Twitter believes it is the best way to go, to get rid of scammers(and make some money) – by letting people (everybody) pay for the accounts! In that way, you have to give up some of your personal detail (AND pay) to be verified. And now every legitimate personal account can get a blue mark.
So, unfortunately, this remark below is no longer valid on Twitter – because there the blue tick does not have any real meaning anymore other than the fact that person was willing to pay for an account ….. But luckily the other media forums still have them!!
Let’s think of this scenario where I might share the name of a famous person. That will give me the right to have a blue check mark next to my name if I pay. How will people then know the difference between the famous person and me? In the same way, any person can pay the $8 and give a phone number and claim to be a real person with any name – even a celebrity name and can get an account running.
Of course, the blue Twitter tick does not really matter in the case of Alex, because he is not on there to make a decision on whether to pay or not to pay for his account.
All I know is that it makes it a little bit easier to report scammers on Facebook because there is a verified blue tick account for him there to report the scammers with. On the other hand, I have found that Twitter responds quickly if a scammer account is reported there. But the biggest fight for the fans against scammers still remains with uncontrolled groups on Facebook, where scammers run havoc – And naive fans still support them! No reports against them are taken seriously and they can’t be reported.
- A few months back there was an article about scammers that involved Alex.
Woman loses $37k to catfisher posing as Aussie actor Alex O’Loughlin
9NEWS
A NSW woman has told how she was tricked into believing she was in an online relationship with Australian actor Alex O’Loughlin as part of a catfishing scam.
All up, Sonia* said she lost $37,000 to the scammers – as well as her pride and dignity. “I look back at it now and think about how stupid I was,” the 45-year-old from regional NSW told 9news.com.au.
9news.com.au does not suggest in any way O’Loughlin has any connection to scammers.
The traumatic experience began back in November 2020 when Sonia* was first approached on Twitter by an account with the same name as the 46-year-old Hawaii Five-O star.
On her own Twitter account, Sonia mentioned how much she loved Hawaii Five-O and also followed some O’Loughlin fan accounts.
“It was during the pandemic and I just felt alone and I wanted to talk to other people who had the same interests as me,” Sonia said. When the first Twitter messages came through from the account masquerading as O’Loughlin they were innocuous enough, Sonia said. “The messages were all about the show and what I liked about it, what I thought of the last two seasons and that kind of stuff,” she said.
Sonia said she soon became convinced that she was speaking with the real O’Loughlin – who is based in the US – because the messages indicated a deep knowledge about Hawaii Five-O and the actor’s life. “I asked him what his real name was, which is information that you really need to dig for, and he knew it straight away,” Sonia said.
The stage is set
The messages soon grew personal, with the scammer asking Sonia about her life. At his request, they moved their conversation to WhatsApp, where the conversation became even more flirtatious. “It was a romance scam and I was being groomed,” Sonia said. “He would tell me that he was divorcing his wife and looking for the right person for him.” He told me he was coming back to Australia. He said, ‘I’m gonna go there and see my family and we could meet up.’ But, of course, he never put a date to it.”
Eventually, the scammer posing as O’Loughlin would tell Sonia he was in love with her and wanted her to marry him. It was after about a month of constant messaging that the scammer made his first mention of money, Sonia said. The scammer told Sonia he had bought her a Christmas present from a New York jewellery store, which was worth more than $US250,000 ($360,000). “He showed me the photographs of the jewellery. Of course, you are that overwhelmed with it at the time that you don’t question it…it was very flattering,” Sonia said. “The catch was that I had to pay a ‘customs fee’ for it to come into Australia.” Sonia said she forked out $8500 for the customs fee to a “courier” before she realised it was a scam. But the scammer wasn’t done with Sonia yet. Sonia said the person posing as O’Loughlin managed to convince her he was a victim of the mailing scam too. “He played out that he was also scammed and that he felt awful about me being scammed,” she said. “He said he felt so awful and he wanted me to have a lovely Christmas – so he offered to transfer the same amount of money as the jewellery was worth into a bank account.” In order to do this, the scammer asked Sonia to set up a bank account, directing her to the website of a fake financial institution called Trust Universal Bank. Sonia said when she asked the scammer why he couldn’t just transfer the money into her current bank account, he had a ready excuse. “He said he didn’t want his wife to find out about it as they had a joint account,” Sonia said. Sonia filled out forms on the fraudulent website, supplying her driver’s licence and passport details, and was given a “bank account”, which appeared to show a balance of $500,000 had been deposited. However, when Sonia tried to withdraw the money, a notification popped up asking for a transfer code. Sonia was told she needed to pay around $8000, and then another $20,500, in order to get the code. Sonia said she paid the first two amounts, but then baulked when another $12,000 was demanded. An online search by Sonia revealed that the website was using the logo from a legitimate US bank called Trust Bank. Sonia called the Trust Bank, where a manager confirmed Trust Universal Bank did not exist.
“That’s when I realised I had been scammed,” Sonia said. “It was like being hit with a baseball bat and having everything ripped out.”
Sonia said her bank initially refused to reimburse her for any of her losses. But, after she lodged a dispute with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority, ANZ refunded $5000 of the roughly $8500 she paid in “customs” duty at the beginning of the scam.
9news.com.au has reached out to O’Louglin’s Australian representative, who said the actor’s agent and lawyer in the US were aware of the matter. O’Loughlin’s US agent is yet to respond. Sonia said she had since connected with other victims on Facebook who had also been duped into thinking they were speaking with the real O’Loughlin. “I know some of his fans have lost up to $350,000 due to these scams running online,” she said.
Sonia said she hoped O’Loughlin would consider releasing a statement warning his fans about the scammers.
Calls for banks to do more
Last year, Australians reported $40.7 million in romance scam losses to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch. It’s a small fraction of the $570 million in total losses reported to Scamwatch during the same period. While enormous, the true figure is likely to be far greater again, with only a small percentage of scam victims coming forward. The ACCC has long been campaigning for banks to adopt technology already used in some parts of Europe which helps customers check the name of the account they are transferring money to in order to reduce the volume of bank transfer scams. While online banking transactions require customers to enter a recipient’s name, BSB and account number, most banks check only the BSB and account number. Last week, the Commonwealth Bank announced it would follow the Netherlands’ lead and begin using a technology called NameCheck. CBA’s retail banking group executive, Angus Sullivan, said the technology indicates whether account details entered by customers to make a first-time payment match those in the bank’s database. “When they transfer money online, many people assume the intended recipient’s account name is checked as well as the BSB and account number, but in most cases this is not possible,” he said. “We now have the data and technology to improve this.” A spokesperson for ANZ declined to answer questions asked by 9news.com.au about whether it also planned to introduce the same technology. “Our teams and systems monitor suspicious activity 24/7, analysing thousands of data points and trends every day,” an ANZ spokesperson said in a statement. “As sophisticated scammers change the way they target their victims, we too change how we work to protect our customers, with new systems and technologies deployed to identify and disrupt these activities.”
Our posts over the years …..
- Posts here on the blog (Which automatically share on Twitter and Facebook)
17 July 2022
15 July 2022
So This Is How It Works With @Instagram & @Meta (#Instagram #Meta #scammers )
3 July 2022
United Front – #AlexOLoughlin Fans Against Scammers On #FaceBook
20 June 2022
- And this picture quote has been on this site since June 2013
- On Instagram we posted these …
alexoloughlin_intensestudy To clear up confusion …… – There is no REAL #AlexOLoughlin page on IG! – There are however a number of REAL Alex O’Loughlin FAN pages like ours – and most of us have been around for a while. Promoting Alex and his work and sharing our love for him with others. – BUT there are also a lot of FAKE pages, pretending to be Alex O’Loughlin. Know the difference, by looking at what they post, how they post, and what they offer. Any account talking as if they are Alex, and who offers you some personal connection with him – is a FAKE! Please support the real fans and their fan pages. BUT report the fakes to @instagram
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Dear Fellow Fans. Please remember that #AlexOLoughlin is not personally connected to any fan page with his name on it. You cannot privately chat with him anywhere online. Those offers are ALL SCAMS!!(We know most of you know that he is not on social media – but many don’t! We will be doing these posts regularly and ask that you please “like” them – in order for them to be seen by more fans who might otherwise fall victim to scams. There are so many fake fan profiles here on IG, pretending to be Alex, and unfortunately, no effective way to report them.)
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Dear Fellow #AlexOLoughlin Fans – Please remember – Alex O’Loughlin is not personally connected to any fan page. You cannot chat with him anywhere online! No such offer is real and you do not need to pay to be his fan. Nobody online speaks on his behalf. All the fan pages (like us and many other beautiful pages) only share pictures and information about his career. Anybody who tries to offer you anything else is not a real fan of him. They are somebody who wants to use your adoration for Alex to defraud you. Not every pretty picture of Alex shared, comes with good intentions. Don’t be fooled by them. Don’t share your phone number or any private detail with anybody online! Be wise and educate yourself about online safety.
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Due to a number of requests this week, we want to re-post the following message again. NO! #AlexOLoughlin is not sending you private messages … The internet is full of scamsters! Don’t be fooled by them! We get messages from fans nearly every week asking us if Alex is now sending personal messages to them. Some asking if the bank account details he is giving are genuine. Evil people prey on the vulnerable and naive – On those who might not know how social media works. But it is for you to think logically and place a question mark on why any celebrity would contact fans personally. Just as if they do not have their own personal lives. Most celebrities, like Alex, are busy people with no reason or interest to be personal friends with fans. And if they wanted you to give money to some cause, they would make it very public and official on a large scale – NEVER in private or in one on one messages. How much time do you think they have to contact individuals for such things, asking for money? – JUST THINK CLEARLY!!! How many more times does Alex have to say this in interviews before people will believe it? We know language is a big issue and people who do not understand English properly are at a bigger risk to be fooled by these, sometimes dangerous individuals. It is therefore good if you are knowledgeable and speaks a different language, but understand English, to help your fellow fans in this regard. I really do hope that in the near future especially Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, will make it easier to report these scamsters. It is time for them to step up and protect their users. Look for the blue tick. And don’t trust any account without it – especially those with the word “official” in their name. And please read bios on top of pages properly to know what they are about, before blindly following them and liking all their posts. By doing that, you are part of the problem! Fans accounts are fans – and they don’t represent him or speak for him. Most of them just want to share the beauty of Alex with others and enjoy him with fellow fans……
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Just another reminder that #AlexOLoughlin is not on social media. Still too many people believe that pages with the word “official” in them are actually Alex. Really time that @instagram implements better protocols to prevent this type of deceit, when a celeb is not on Instagram at all.
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Our weekly reminder that #AlexOLoughlin is not on Instagram. Just some advice for those who don’t know. A celebrity will have a blue verification tick next to their name on their page, to make it easy for you to see who is real and who not. “The desperate sort of desire for immediacy in everything is wild, you know. That’s why I don’t do social media.” – Alex O’Loughlin, May 2020 (Inferno cast interview)
alexoloughlin_intensestudy This is our weekly reminder that #AlexOLoughlin is not on any Instagram page. There are only fan accounts and some other accounts that try to fool naive people. Alex will not try to communicate with you in private messages. And no celebrity will beg you for donations in private conversations. Be wise – look for the blue verification mark on any official account.“I would rather set fire to myself than join social network! I’m so unmanageable when it comes to that stuff.” – Alex in a #H50 interview in March 2011
alexoloughlin_intensestudy Another reminder that there is NO REAL or OFFICIAL Instagram page for #AlexOLoughlin. In a number of interviews, he expressed lack of desire to be part of social media. We will keep on posting reminders of it, for those who do not know it.“The desperate sort of desire for immediacy in everything, is wild, you know. That’s why I don’t do social media.” – Alex O’Loughlin of #H50 during his #BJJ interview with Inferno Cast in May 2020
- Then of course there are the many interviews where Alex himself tells fans that he is not on social media and that he does not have time for such direct communication:
May 2020
#AlexOLoughlin of #H50, Talking about #BJJ (Transcript #3)
March 2015
(Transcript) Alex O’Loughlin: ‘Getting down and dirty’ with Pauly Shore #1
September 2012
#H50: #AlexOLoughlin primed for great things on and off the screen
September 2011
Alex O’Loughlin on ET Canada: Uncut
March 2011
#H50 cast answer fan questions
October 2009
#AlexOLoughlin doing a Live Chat for CBS and Three Rivers
In the article, it was mentioned that maybe Alex should release a statement to warn fans about scammers.
My question is – Where should Alex release such a statement to warn fans about scammers? He is not on social media – to do it there.
Should he take out an ad in every single newspaper in the world – and in every language? Maybe take out an ad on TV to do it? Should he spend all his time warning every fan on every scammer account, of which many are being created on a daily basis on all social media forums? I can tell you – that is a mammoth task because some of us actually try to do it.
Exactly what more can Alex do other than to tell fans on so many occasions, during interviews over the years, that he has no desire to be on social media.
He already said it – just believe him!!
Alex O´Loughlin ~ An Intense Study 
It´s bad in general. But since Alex made several statements over the years that he is not doing social media at all I think, we fans who know that and believe what he daid over and over again can share those comments on scammer accounts. Since you put together that awesome video on Youtube I hope, if we share it widely on social media platforms people who want to know will now and be careful. Those who don´t believe what Alex himself said and still fall for those scammers imo can not be helped. My own experience in this is 1. even if you warn people, often in one to one chats, most don´t care and continue talking to those fake Alexes. 2. Facebook doesn´t care one bit when you report fake accounts. Obviously scamming people is not against their communiy standarts (really weird). So I try to warn people as often as I can by sharing the video because that´s the only thing I can do. So in case of Alex, a blue sign doesn´t make a difference imo because he is not on social media anyway. And most fans should know by now. IF he decides to revive his official Facebook account in the future he has to make clear it´s really him and not a fake Alex.
Of course this change is bad for many celebrity accounts and their fans as well. But this is social media – unfortunatelly. Maybe Alex´s decision to stay away from those pages was a smart one although it would be nice to have a page which is updated. But what´s going on on social media is unacceptable. My two unasked cents
Thank you for what you do by raising awareness.
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And when I read in this article of the woman being scammed: “Sonia said she hoped O’Loughlin would consider releasing a statement warning his fans about the scammers.” I wonder where she lives? – to put it nicely. How often is he supposed to state that he is NOT doing social media???
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Short add: I just locked into my facebook account and had a reply by facebook about an “Alex O`Loughlin” account I reported earlier this day which is selling so called “membership cards” which – as they promise – would give you access to a meeting with Alex. Of course selling fakes like this is criminal but it obviously “is not against Facebook´s community standarts”. Makes me mad!
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Anybody know what’s going
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Hi. Sorry, but I do not know what is unclear to you.
Please clarify what you are referring to, then we can answer.
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I once had someone on social media begin a chat with me claiming to be Keanu Reeves who -like Alex – says he is not on social media. I wrote back to this individual and said, “Nice try but I know Keanu Reeves isn’t on social media.”. Never heard from them again!
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Yes, the scammers do have a few favourite celebs whose fans they target – and Keanu is one of them.
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I’ve never had to block so many people impersonating a celebrity until I started following o’loughlin fan pages, it’s unbelievable. I had to change to a private account on instagram just so I can filter them all. So far I am blocking about 4 per day. I conversed with one of them once, before I blocked, just to see what they would say. Told them they didn’t do their research very well as they picked someone not even on social media, the comebacks were hilarious as they tried to explain themselves in broken English.
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Yes, and still many believe them even with the broken English and all they nonsense they come up with.
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