Singer Daniel O’Donnell says scammers posing as him online in order to steal money are “so convincing” and has told fans he will “never ask you for money”.
The 63-year-old star has recently seen a fake Facebook account pretending to be him replying to comments on his official page asking fans to contact him privately.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, he said: “I stress so often, I make videos saying, ‘I will not contact you, I will never ask you for money.’
“I don’t charge for meet and greets because I meet people after every show. I don’t charge to send somebody a video.
“So there’s no reason at any time other than getting a ticket to come and see a concert or buy a record, that’s even gone now, or a CD, there’s no other time when you have to pay any money, certainly not directly to me.
“I put up videos saying, ‘Do not engage with people on Facebook, because it will not be me,’ and still people get caught.”
He went on to explain that a real-life friend of his had been tricked by the scam.
O’Donnell said: “A friend of mine who’s a nun sister in the convent, the police or the guards at home, got in touch with us. I went on WhatsApp to her – she had already given money on an Apple Pay card.
“It was that I was going to come to visit on Friday, and that I need money to get the ticket. It’s crazy.”
The star, who was born in Kincasslagh, Co Donegal, explained that when he posted about coming on the show on the social media platform, his post received a comment from a fake account thanking fans for their support and telling them to message it.
He said: “It’s unfortunate, and they’re so convincing and they seem to be able to just use the right words.
“But when you, if you read that, ‘thank you for your love and support’, I would never start a sentence like that, and on the thing last night it has no relation to what the message is.
“It doesn’t connect with what has been said, because it was, ‘we’re coming on to talk about scams’, and then you’re saying ‘thank you for your love and support’ – there’s no connection between the two messages.”
Presenter Richard Madeley, who also had a fake account created in his name, said the fake O’Donnell account was missing an apostrophe and had only one friend, but the singer said even he “would not know about that” and could be convinced by the scam.
O’Donnell was joined on the show by cybersecurity expert Jake Moore, who urged fans to report the account to Facebook, which he said “really does help”.
He advised viewers: “Stick to official channels. If there was a genuine meet and greet with Daniel or any celebrity, it would be on their website, it would be up in lights, it would be a big thing.
“So keep on the official website, but also the official fan page, and it will be authenticated with a tick – now that’s not a fake emoji tick, so make sure you’re looking at the real blue and white one, and then you can trust that if that’s there.
“And it will have loads of followers, it won’t just be made in the last few days or so.” – PA
