As a business owner, what would you do if someone created a fake social media account with your name, your picture, and your images only to then reach out to your friends, family members, and customers with the sole purpose of scamming them out of large sums of cash?

This is not a hypothetical, this type of fraud happens ALL THE TIME, and it just happened to our founder and CEO.

On Dec 8th, 2022, Darryl Cresswell started to receive messages from his contacts on social media.   A cybercriminal had created a fake Facebook account with his Full Name, and even went as far as to copy his profile picture and banner image from Darryl’s real social media accounts.

Shortly thereafter the scammer started reaching out to Darryl’s social media connections and engaging in friendly conversation before shifting the conversation into his scam.   Fortunately, most of the contacts he tried the scam on were also cybersecurity industry leaders and very quickly noted the scam and contacted Darryl immediately.

Afterall, if you know Darryl this was a very easy scam to detect. Darryl has made it his mission to protect as many people as possible from these types of criminals and scams and would never ask anyone to send money over social media.

What should you do if someone you think you know is asking you for money?

This should be your first RED FLAG!   Pick up the phone and call them, or better yet talk to them in person.  People asking for money over social media are nearly always trying to scam you!   Report this to the respective social networks and block the sender.

What did Darryl do?

He went on social media and DM’ed (Direct Messaged) the criminal and what happened next was amazing.   This criminal didn’t even try to hide the fact that he was a complete fraud!  Instead, he shifted his tactics to instead try and scam Darryl.

NOTE: We are including full screenshots of not only the fake profile, but also the DM history back and forth with the cybercriminal.  It's our sincere hope that by sharing this with the community it can help someone else identify the warning signs and avoid being scammed.

The scammer went on to tell Darryl how sorry he is for being a scammer, that the only reason he was doing it was his poor life, his sick daughter who had only 9 hours to live, and his wife who had just died of cancer. ABSOLUTLY DISGUSTING AND DEPLORABLE. He then went on to say if only Darryl would send him $1,500.00, he could stop his scams and save his daughter's life.

Folks here are some of the most common tactics of scammers.

  • Sense of Urgency (Act Now)
  • Playing to your emotions (Sick Daughter, Wife Died of Cancer)
  • Something bad will happen (Daughter has only 9 hours to live)
  • The Scam (Send me gift card with $1,500.00)

These types of people have no moral compass and, in their greed, will happily steal from you, your family and anyone else.   People's lives are ruined every day, companies small and large are frauded every day by criminals who make this their full-time job.

Protect yourself at home and at work.  Never agree to send money to someone over social media even if they are using a name you recognize.   It's our sincere hope that by showing you this scam in action you can better protect yourself, your loved ones, your company and never become a victim to these types of criminals.

Here is the whole history of the scam in action before Facebook terminated his fake account.