With the rise of the Internet and the opening of social networks to all generations, online scams have multiplied exponentially. Every thousands of scammers use their skills to try to extort money from countless unsuspecting victims.
Although from the outside it may seem unlikely that someone would fall into one of these online traps due to the obvious falsehood of many of the communications, there are a large number of people who are not used to the world of the Internet and who fully trust what they they tell him. This is the case of a woman who thought that the actor Mel Gibson had fallen in love with her and spoke to her every night.
The Mediaset Cuatro al Día program investigated this case and discovered that the scammer contacted the victim through a messaging application posing as the famous actor Mel Gibson.
The alleged actor sent a first message to the woman in question explaining that he was very attracted to her and assuring her that it was a real and genuine connection, something that the victim ended up believing.
”I don’t know why I’m attracted to you and I miss you every time you’re not around me,” ”You’re so sweet,” or ”It’s finally going to happen in July. Be a little patient honey, we’ll see each other soon ” are some of the messages that the scammer sent to his victim.
“He began to send messages directly to me, at first I was surprised that someone so famous would talk to me,” the woman explained to the editors of the Mediaset España program. “He talks to me every night, he tells me about the movies he’s recorded and the actors he’s been with,” said the victim, explaining that she had also believed him because he had a profile picture of the actor and had sent him another image on the conversation.
Fortunately, this case remained a scam attempt, since the woman discovered that she was being deceived before giving money to the fake celebrity. Despite the fact that there were no economic consequences, the woman felt “cheated” and “humiliated” by the scammer and contacted the program to make her cause visible and defend that this type of deception is more common of what we think
The current affairs program presented by Ana Terradillos invited the psychologist Sara Rico to give her opinion on the subject. The expert explained that there are many people who live in a “false positivism” that leads them to believe that everything is true and that is why this type of thing is not questioned.
As a psychologist, she contributed that the ideal victims for this type of crime are those who present childish personalities from a clinical victim point of view, since they are easier to cajole and deceive.
