Twitter CEO Elon Musk waves as he leaves carrying his child after speaking at the POSSIBLE marketing conference on April 18 in Miami Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell)
If someone claiming to be Elon Musk, the second-wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $191 billion, sends a Facebook friend request to your profile, don’t be surprised to learn it’s a scam.
Recently a Benton woman received a friend request
from an account on Facebook claiming to be the billionaire businessman and she believed them.
Through their conversation, she received a message from the supposed Musk stating he wanted to help people out by giving them money.
Thinking it was an act of kindness, she accepted his offer.
Not long after sharing information with the imposter Musk, the Benton woman received a notification from her bank stat- ing there was suspicious activity happening with her account. Someone had been attempting to access her account and she was locked out of it.
After the unsuccessful fraud attempts from the impostor, the fake Elon Musk began texting the woman, claiming she had stolen money from him and threatened to kill her.
This was when the Benton resident realized they were
being scammed and called the Benton Police.
The police report states she “realized she had been scammed and the person she was communicating with was truly, not Elon Musk.”
Krista Petty, media specialist, with the Benton Police Department, said that unfortunately, these online scams, are very common these days. While scams with people pretending to be someone as famous as Elon Musk isn’t as common, it’s still something to watch out for.
“People claiming to be famous or well-known are not as common, but as you can see, they do occur.”
The key is not to interact with anyone that you didn’t initiate contact with — especially when money is involved. Never ever give out personal information of any kind online in these interactions, said Petty.
According to Petty, there are an increasing number of scams to watch for these days.
“One of the most prolific right now is via text message. This often includes messages from supposed banking institutions or package carriers/ delivery services. Unless you’ve signed up to receive notifications from these institutions, they will not text you. Don’t click any links. Just delete,” she said.