‘Shame on You’: Hilliard woman’s warning to others after TikTok scam

JACKSONVILLE, Fla – TikTok is informing radical to ticker retired for scammers who unreal to beryllium different people, sometimes adjacent celebrities.

A Hilliard pistillate experienced it firsthand and said It was precise frustrating.

Someone impersonating state vocalist Trace Adkins connected Tik Tok told Stephanie Coltrane she won a large prize done a nonstop message. The impersonator told her she won $150,000 and a brand-new motortruck which she believed astatine first.

Coltrane admits she thought it was excessively bully to beryllium true, and of course, it was.

“Shame connected you,” said Coltrane. “Shame connected you due to the fact that you are messing with people’s feelings. I was aggravated that was made due to the fact that my hubby is simply a disabled veteran, and we are progressive with the Wounded Warrior Project. So is Trace Adkins. So, I thought this was legit.”

But things started to look fishy, and Coltrane said what the scammer did adjacent was a large reddish flag.

“[The scammer] persisted for my code and my telephone number,” Coltrane said. “[They] kept saying, ‘Hey. I privation to travel to your home. I privation to bash this personally.’ He wanted to personally bring it to maine astatine my home.”

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The scammer persisted and kept asking for her telephone number, but she ignored them and reported the account.

Stories similar this are wherefore TikTok launched its #BeCyberSmart run In November 2021. It is an effort to physique fraud consciousness and education.

A fewer recommendations for users are to verify accounts. If you get an enticing connection similar Coltrane, spell consecutive to the company’s website to confirm. Also, look retired for atrocious grammar oregon misspellings.

Monitor your devices for unauthorized enactment and support them by consistently upgrading bundle to debar scammers from easy hacking accounts.

Coltrane said she is thankful she did not suffer thing valuable, but she is informing others to beryllium careful. She called retired her scammer connected her ain TikTok relationship and she besides sent messages to Trace Adkins’ website officials.

In that process, Coltrane recovered much than 50 different scammers who created accounts successful Trace Adkins’ name.

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“All of these different accounts, TikTok needs to instrumentality them down,” Coltrane said.

TikTok removed the archetypal relationship that scammed Stephanie and much than a fewer twelve much this week.

A TikTok spokesperson said radical should ever study accounts similar that arsenic soon arsenic possible.

Coltrane said aft the idiosyncratic insisted connected trying to travel to her location to driblet disconnected the “prize,” she messaged them the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office’s address, with hopes of luring them away.

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