Kate Beckinsale has by no means minced phrases — and received’t begin now for a thief utilizing her title.
The “Underworld” star is warning her social media followers a couple of catfish pretending to be her to be able to rip-off individuals out of cash. Beckinsale, who shared screenshots from a number of followers who say their dad and mom have been focused, addressed the difficulty Tuesday.
“Hey so this is such a shitty horrible thing to do and it’s not the first time an elderly man has been scammed out of actually a lot of money ― hundreds of thousands of dollars,” she captioned her Instagram put up. “Whoever is doing this is disgusting and evil.”
The “Serendipity” actor emphasised that “any message pretending to [be] me is a scammer and I will never be dming anyone asking for money.”
The FBI Web Crime Criticism Heart not too long ago confirmed that elder fraud complaints elevated by 14% final yr, and famous that “scams targeting individuals aged 60 or older caused over $3.4 billion in losses” in 2023 alone — with the typical sufferer shedding $33,915.
Beckinsale shared a glimpse of simply how manipulative these scammers are. One of many messages she shared on Instagram got here from a involved daughter who mentioned her “elderly dad is being scammed out of lots of money” and “does not believe” he’s a sufferer.
The opposite message went so far as mentioning Beckinsale’s daughter, Lily Mo Sheen.
Lionel Hahn by way of Getty Photos
“He is convinced that Kate proposed to him via text… and that she and Lily are coming out soon to pay him a visit,” one other Instagram person mentioned of their father. “The news article about the catfished stalkers that forced Kate to move homes didn’t help.”
Beckinsale was certainly pressured to maneuver after a number of catfish victims who thought she had invited them harassed her at dwelling over the course of a number of weeks in 2021. The actor reportedly later defined that the deceived harassers thought they “were in some sort of relationship” together with her.
“My boyfriend at the time and I were completely freaked out, the catfished guys were humiliated and some of them arrested, the scammers weren’t caught and I ended up ultimately having to move house,” she wrote on Instagram in 2023, per The Impartial.
“So long story short,” she concluded, “if you think I’m messaging you, it’s not me.”
