People Keep Trying To Scam Darius Rucker’s Fans, And He’s Had Enough
Darius Rucker is getting tired of all the scams on social media.
The “Wagon Wheel” singer recently shared a message with his fans to warn them about scammers who’ve been impersonating him online. He said, “Hey y’all. I need to say this again because it keeps happening and it breaks my heart every time I hear about it.“
Rucker said if anyone thinks they’ve been contacted by someone claiming to be him, his team, or a family member, they’re impostors. He emphasized, “These are professional scammers pretending to be me to take advantage of you financially.”
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Those who impersonate celebrities on social media often do so to scam fans out of money. They’ll claim they’re in a tough spot financially, say they’re raising funds for charity, or promise to send concert tickets or other goods in exchange for the money.
Rucker said, “[I] will NEVER contact you asking for money or personal information.”
He encouraged his fans to report any impersonators they come across on social media. “I never want to see anyone be taken advantage of,” he said.
Ways To Confirm A Social Media Profile Is Legitimate
Thankfully, several tell-tale signs can help people identify scammers pretending to be celebrities on social media.
For starters, most celebrities, public figures, and major brands have a “verified” mark next to their profiles on Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, and more. This means the profile has been verified by the site as belonging to the person or brand.
You can see an example of the verified mark next to Darius Rucker’s official Instagram profile in the image below.
Secondly, legitimate celebrities understandably tend to have large social media followings. As you can see in the image above from Rucker’s Instagram page, he has one million followers on the site.
Anyone impersonating Rucker is naturally going to have a much smaller follower count.
Also, when verifying a profile’s legitimacy, check the spelling and structure of their username. Impersonator pages will often misspell a celebrity’s name or add extra symbols or numbers, but the differences can be subtle and hard to spot. Impersonator pages will sometimes try to appear authentic by including words such as “real,” “official,” or “fanpage” in their names as well.
Rucker’s username on Instagram is simply his full name, dariusrucker. But someone impersonating him may choose usernames such as dar1usrucker or realdariusruckerfanpage.
Additionally, as Rucker pointed out in his post, celebrities will rarely (or never) interact with fans through private messages or other forms of direct communication. Plus, they will never reach out to a fan to ask them for money or gift cards.
Country Stars Filmed A PSA About Social Media Scams In 2018
Social media scams aren’t new. But impersonators are getting better at what they do.
AI has now made it possible for scammers to send videos as the celebrity they’re pretending to be. Earlier this year, an Ohio man lost money to a scammer who used AI-generated videos to convince him he was Jelly Roll.
Country singers have been trying to warn their fans about imposter profiles for years. Singers who attended the 2018 CMT Music Awards filmed a PSA about social media scams, and their points still stand today.
Watch that PSA in the video below.