Woman scammed out of retirement money after being ‘catfished’ by Bee Gees’ Barry Gibb impersonator
A woman who thought she was romantically involved with Barry Gibb ended up losing a large chunk of her retirement plan.
In a recent episode of Scamfish shared on the YouTube channel Catfished, Bee Gees fan Wanda explained that she wanted to double check that the man she'd been speaking to was really Gibb.
"I know he really loves me," she told the hosts - but little did she know she'd been sending thousands of dollars to a fraudster.
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As to how Wanda came in contact with the person pretending to be Gibb, she explained that she was browsing one of the Bee Gees Facebook fan pages when an option came up to chat to him.
Initially she thought it was suspicious, but upon chatting to the person they started having 'intimate' chats and even discussed meeting up.
The real Gibb has been married to his wife Linda Gray since 1970 and, with this in mind, Wanda questioned his relationship status.
Apparently the catfish said he was leaving his wife for her and even told Wanda to start searching for homes for them to live in in Oregon.
The person pretending to be Gibb then urged Wanda to transfer $11,000 to this realtor Aaron Williams, which came from her retirement fund.
The scammer then said they couldn't afford to divorce Gray, so they set up a fund raiser and managed to get over $16,000 from fans who weren't aware that it was a scam - just like Wanda.
The fake Gibb continuously refused to speak to Wanda over the phone or on video call, but her 'gut feeling' made her believe it really was the Bee Gees star.
But it appears as if this person wasn't the only one pretending to be Gibbs as his son Stephen took to Facebook to warn people that there had been a series of fraudsters pretending to be his famous father.
Upon getting in touch with the Scamfish team, Wanda was urged to stop sending money to the individual she thought to be the 'How Deep Is Your Love' hitmaker.
The programme managed to track down the accounts for the so-called relator to be someone in Lagos, Nigeria.
In the wake of their discovery, Wanda has blocked all the Gibb accounts she had and changed her bank details.
Wanda was told that she should file a police report about the ordeal, with the Scamfish team saying they would turn over their evidence to the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) in a bid to help the investigation.
Niamh Shackleton