Fans praise Jimmy Barnes for taking a stand against ‘bloody scammers’

While Jimmy Barnes has garnered widespread acclaim over the years for his incredible music talent, his recent endeavour in taking a stand against scam activity has triggered a fresh wave of praise and admiration from fans and supporters worldwide.

Shifting the spotlight away from the stage and onto a crucial issue, Barnes took to Instagram to alert his followers about scammers posing as him and his team while warning his devoted fanbase not to interact with the fraudulent individuals.

“Please beware of the many scammers that keep popping up in the comments on my social media posts. Do not engage with anyone in the comments who claim to be me, claim to have a direct line of communication with me or my team, or even offer competitions / financial opportunities,” he wrote.

“BLOCK + REPORT these accounts when you see them. Unfortunately every few months we need to do one of these posts but it’s important that everyone is aware of how these scammers try to lure people into conversations and false claims. Engaging with these accounts can lead to being scammed out of money, or even identify theft.

“My team do the best they can to keep them all away, but they just keep appearing, and there’s very little the social media giants have been able to do to prevent this from happening…not just on my social media channels, but on almost every social media account that has an audience. It’s important that we all look out for one another, and stay vigilant. Stay safe.”

 

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Fans wasted no time in showering Barnes with praise, applauding his swift action in both alerting and safeguarding his supporters while calling out scam activity.

“Yes, I’m glad you are posting this!! Bloody scammers!!” one fan wrote.

“Yes thank you for letting people know, I messaged on your official account then got a very convincing message from a Jimmy Barnes account saying he was you.

“Yep they’re the pits when they pop up pretending to be you,” commented another.

“Hell yeah, I reckon I get requests from people purporting to be you at least twice a week. Great post.”

“Finally someone taking notice and standing up to these scammers. Thank you jimmy.”

Barnes isn’t the only one facing such deceit, as beloved actor Sam Neill also found himself entangled in a similar web of malicious scam activity, with scammers using his identity and likeness to deceive unsuspecting individuals.

Much like Barnes, Neill took to social media to issue his own warning to fans, exposing a cunning scam that is shamelessly using his name and image to deceive people.

“SCAM! PLEASE IGNORE!!” he began the post.

“This is one of a number of scam accounts on social media pretending to be me. They now start including blue ticks to make them look like a verified account.

“Please note anyone contacting you saying they are me, represent me, are from my management team or similar is a fake! They will start conversations that always end in scamming you out of money. (They’ll also try get you on to other platforms like Skype, WhatsApp etc to continue the conversations).

“PLEASE IGNORE!! And also report to Instagram / Threads / Facebook / Twitter so these fraudsters pages can be shut down.”

When it comes to avoiding falling victim to scam activity, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) suggests the following:

• Always make sure you know who you are dealing with or talking to. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• If you are not sure that an offer is genuine, do not go through with the purchase or share personal details.
• Check if the company is registered through the ABN lookup website.
• Read reviews of the business and check for signs that it could be a scam.
• Use a credit card rather than a debit card or bank transfer so that you can ask your bank for a chargeback.