Man pretends to be lead singer of Journey, scams $120k via Facebook

Guys, we’ve gotta do a better job of monitoring our relatives’ Facebook messages. We all know that “fake celebrity asking for money” is the oldest scam of the digital age, but somehow that message still hasn’t made its way to everyone. That’s why Westlake Police Department, who are putting one poor woman’s business on blast in order to raise awareness, lest you one day fork over $122,000 to a faux Steve Perry.

According to Ohio NBC affiliate WKYC, someone posing as the ex-Journey frontman contacted the 75-year-old on Facebook in January, eventually moving their “relationship” over to texting and WhatsApp. She reportedly sent $72,000 via wire transfers to “various persons in various different states, designated by ‘Perry,’ through her bank,” in addition to buying approximately $50,000 in gift cards as encouraged by the scammer. The victim got wise to the scheme only after fake Perry “became more demanding” and asked for such things as pictures of passports and driver’s licenses.

In a statement, Westlake police explained that “The fake Mr. Perry had a business opportunity for investment and of course ‘needed a woman in his life.’” How withering, that “of course”! As if mistakenly handing over $100k isn’t humiliating enough, now this lady is Westlake’s poster child for scams.

Listen, scams these days are mutating and multiplying—with the proliferation of artificial intelligence, it’s getting harder to tell what on the Internet is actually real. But if one thing remains true, it’s that aging rock stars (or foreign princes) aren’t going to wander into anybody’s inbox looking for a bunch of pricey gift cards. So please, communicate to your elders that they shouldn’t be sending money to anyone they haven’t met in person. And if you’re a scammer who happens to be reading this, stop taking advantage of little old ladies and their fantasies! Damn!