Unfortunately, scammers have also taken notice and are operating hundreds ofimpostor accountstargeting his followers.
Meanwhile,a veteranand his wife fight to reclaim hishighjacked Facebook accountfrom scammers.
[00:00:00] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam.
[00:00:24] Male(impostor): Hello, I’m Paul Nicklen.
Thank you for your comment on my official page.
I will love to know what you think of my career.
They wired the fake, ‘You owe the money.’
And that’s when it just ripped my heart out.
I mean we’re talking to the tune of almost $100,000 that was sent, like life savings.
And that, that just, that just was a punch in the gut.
(MUSIC INTRO)
[00:01:03] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
Im your host, Bob Sullivan.
Paul Nicklen is a world-famous wildlife photographer.
And he’s pretty sick of it.
Is this you or if it isn’t?
So sometimes it’s as bad as 10 a day.
[00:02:38] Bob: Something so simple as what’s sometimes called the celebrity impostor scam.
He doesn’t have time to report dozens of fake accounts every day.
He could spend nearly all his time doing that.
Here’s Paul speaking during a Ted Talk a few years ago.
We didn’t even have a telephone.
All of my time was spent outside with the Inuit playing.
The snow and the ice were my sandbox and the Inuit were my teachers.
Many time he’s been the first person to photograph these rare animals in their homes.
It’s not easy.
Three feet away from me.
[00:06:09] Paul Nicklen: Yeah, 100%, that’s well said.
And I know that they are so vulnerable and fragile right now.
Don’t worry, he didn’t eat it.
But if you look at the pictures Paul took of these creatures, you’ll never forget them.
It feels like the camera is about to get swallowed Jonah and the whale style.
You just have to go see them.
So my work has to be intimate.
So I, I feel lucky to do what I do.
He’s Paul talking to fans on an Instagram reel video.
[00:10:28] Paul Nicklen (Instagram video): Hey everybody.
kindly report everybody who writes you.
If anybody asks you for money or asks you for anything, just report them.
Uh, these are fake accounts.
We’ll get on top of this.
[00:11:20] Paul Nicklen: (reading post) “This is fake.
This is a scam that is being used to exploit innocent people.
I am healthy and well.
I don’t know how many times I need to say this.
Currently I’m receiving 5 to 10 emails a day from people asking if I wrote them romantic DMs.
For those who follow my work, c’mon know that I will never write you personally.
There is only one @PaulNicklen and any other variation of that name is a scam.
For those who have been hurt by the scammers, I am truly sorry.
[00:12:25] Bob: Six years of this.
This is one battle he just can’t seem to win.
[00:12:45] Paul Nicklen: I’ve never had a problem out in the wild.
I’ve seen 3,000 polar bears.
You don’t know what to do other than write the provider who is not giving you sufficient support.
And that just seems to fall nowhere.
So I hope that they, they hear this podcast.
I hope that you put this in front of them.
I hope that, you know, we, we have to start taking it head on.
And Paul is far from the only celebrity targeted by this crime.
It’s called Social Impostor.
I asked him to define the celebrity impostor scam for us.
And so and it doesn’t take long to gain the trust of people.
[00:15:42] Bob: And it works in part because the criminals have numbers on their side.
[00:16:37] Bob: It’s not going away because the criminals are getting away with it.
Time is on their side.
[00:16:58] Bob: I asked Kevin if he could describe the scale of the problem to us.
[00:17:27] Bob: Wow.
I asked Paul to take a look at his post again while we spoke.
[00:18:11] Paul Nicklen: Just a, coming up slow here.
Okay, here I am.
God, that’s a terrible picture.
[00:18:49] Paul Nicklen: I believe it was.
My understanding is yes, that it was that picture that, that spurred that on.
That, that I was injured and their heart was broken over it.
And then it was brought to the attention of my office manager.
That must have been a choice for you.
[00:19:31] Paul Nicklen: Oh, for sure.
I mean it’s uh, yeah.
Here’s part of a private message Paul’s office received recently from a victim of a different scam.
Could you hey let me know if I should be concerned?
[00:21:16] Bob: Paul’s office shared about a dozen such messages with us.
[00:21:30] Bob: When is the first time this happened to you?
And then you know, then it started, the frequency just started to pick up.
Um, so sometimes it’s as bad as 10 a day.
And she goes, “You know you know who I am.
We’ve been corresponding.”
And I’m like, “I don’t know who you are.
I’ve never met you.
I’ve never talked to you.
It’s a scam.”
I didn’t even take the call.
They wired the fake; ‘you owe the money.’
And that’s when it just ripped my heart out.
That just was a punch in the gut.
And that’s when I started to get pretty angry about this.
[00:24:06] Paul Nicklen: Yeah, exactly.
[00:24:08] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:24:20] Bob: Paul felt sick.
That was six years ago.
Why, why are people scamming me just ruthlessly and, and at such a high frequency as well.
It’s very intimate.
When the scammers write people and say, “Thank you for your love, your support.”
But from me, sure, why not?
That’s why so many celebrities find their way to Kevin’s Social Impostor company.
[00:27:16] Kevin Long: Well it varies right.
It’s to get content out.
Generate content and, and uh post on behalf of their, their person.
That’s all I do.
Those are things that I can assist with as well.
[00:28:51] Bob: Who are his typical clients?
So I work with a lot of folks in the ministry, for example.
And none of them want to see that happen to their followers.
So kudos to them for being proactive in, in finding and removing.
You know I’ve also worked with large charity organizations who have the same problem.
So I’ve seen it there, I’ve worked with a few of those.
And they’re like, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
[00:31:44] Bob: Ahh… that’s terrible.
[00:31:47] Kevin Long: And so that’s happened.
And I see that happen there.
[00:32:20] Bob: That has happened to a victim I interviewed recently.
In fact, it’s happening right now.
[00:32:27] My name is Kelly Anderson.
I live in Southern California right now on Camp Pendleton.
[00:32:34] Bob: Right now sounds very temporary.
Um, my husband is retired from the Navy.
We just still say right now because living on base, nothing is ever permanent.
He was in the Navy for 11 years, Corpsman for 7 of those.
And I am a photographer for the Disneyland Resort.
And I know enough to know generally not to touch those.
So I kind of just brushed him off initially.
I was just like, just don’t click any links.
I’m on my way to work.
I can’t get in.”
[00:34:14] Bob: And that’s when she realizes she has to deal with this right away.
[00:34:24] Kelly Anderson: I have my work, my work uniform on, yes.
[00:34:27] Bob: You have your work uniform on.
And then you realize it’s more serious.
Given all that you’ve just said to me, weren’t you late for work that day?
[00:34:42] Kelly Anderson: I was.
Yeah, I was late for work that day.
So it was something that I, I kind of had to focus on.
But at that point, it was already too late, basically.
The link had expired and at that point there was nothing we could do.
And trying that, it would let us to the next screen, which then asked for a password.
There was literally nothing else to do.
[00:36:43] Bob: And the more Kelly and Ryan click, the more frantic the situation becomes.
[00:36:48] Kelly Anderson: It’s incredibly stressful.
It’s, it is so, so very frustrating, and progressively more and more maddening.
It got to the point where I, I have a very specific time limit at work.
If I’m more than 3 hours late, I can get written up.
And so I have to call it quits at a certain point.
I think I left the house about 45 minutes after my latest deadline.
[00:37:54] Bob: I’m guessing a hand slammed on a desk or something like that?
Lots of, lots of yelling.
[00:38:05] Bob: Ryan is not Paul Nicklen of course.
[00:38:23] Kelly Anderson: Uh, he…
I’m basically tech support for my husband.
So he relies on me to do basically most of the uh tech-related things in the house.
So he’s primarily frustrated because it is adding one thing to my plate in my very busy day.
So he’s not as emotionally invested into his account as most people are.
And so that was more of his concern.
[00:39:58] Kelly Anderson: Right.
[00:39:59] Bob: And Kelly’s worst fears are realized almost right away.
And it looks like a family photo.
It’s a photo of him with his dad and his younger siblings back when they were little kids.
So now we’re more in the heightened awareness.
We’re going, okay, cool.
Ryan’s account is perfect for that.
She reports it as hacked and tells all their mutual social media friends to do the same.
That seems to have no effect.
That was after oh gosh, after the first week or so.
They reported it as being hacked and as being like a scam account.
It’s not like they duplicated his information and his photos and then started breaking the rules.
That’s hard to believe, but it’s also not unusual.
It happened to Paul too.
you’ve got the option to bet he’s done that too.
We know it’s not you.
Just letting you know."
And every time now I write, “just block and report and I’ll do the same.”
[00:43:49] Paul Nicklen: Yeah.
I just got that email about 10 days ago, and I was like, what?
You, you’re joking.
[00:44:14] Bob: Another punch to the gut.
What happened to Kelly’s family?
To Paul’s quest to protect his followers?
Why is this problem so hard to fix, and what does artificial intelligence have to do with that?
And what has Facebook said about the problem?
Well, that’s all next week on The Perfect Scam.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch internet Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
