Fraudsters are tirelessly thinking of ways to scam the public, and they've realized that celebrities can be very ripe targets, too. Days of our Lives alum Krista Allen (ex-Billie Reed) recently found herself in the middle of a major celebrity scam that also affected her former Baywatch costar, Donna D'Errico.
The actresses spoke with Inside Edition about the scary situation, revealing that they had separately received a super sweet offer to fly to Dubai, give a quick speech, and get a $300,000 appearance fee. The scammer purported to be from the office of the Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and explained that the speech would be for an economic empowerment convention for small business owners. The contracts that the fraudster sent over looked legit, so both actresses signed. And that's when things started to get fishy.
As explained by Allen and D'Errico, the organizer in "Dubai" feigned to have trouble wiring over the funds and deposited checks into the women's bank accounts, instead. But before the checks cleared, the scammer asked the women to donate $150,000 each to a fake charity. Fortunately, the Baywatch alums started feeling strange about the situation and backed out before sending the donations or revealing any further personal details about themselves -- which is good, because the checks that the scammer had deposited ended up being fraudulent, and the actresses would have been out $300,000 dollars if they had fallen for the bait.
Allen and D'Errico aren't the only celebrities that have been targeted by this particular scam. Dog the Bounty Hunter was nearly a victim, as was The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Taylor Armstrong, who tweeted, "I was targeted in this as well -- they sent me a fake cashiers check from a business bank to Chase bank and asked me to come speak about domestic victims rights -- my passion and my cause. #sickpeople."
I was targeted in this as well - they sent me a fake cashiers check from a business bank to Chase bank and asked me to come speak about domestic victims rights - my passion and my cause #sickpeople https://t.co/a2qByDHIpB
- Taylor Armstrong (@TaylorArmstrong) August 8, 2019
"It's so scary, what's out there," Allen sums up of the awful scam experience.
As Soap Central reported back in 2016, DAYS alum Alison Sweeney (ex-Sami Brady) was also the target of a celebrity scam in which a company used her image and fake endorsements to sell diet pills. To read about that, click here.
What do you think about scammers targeting celebrities like DAYS' Krista Allen? Have scammers ever tried to target you? If so, how? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.
