Joe Elliott released a short impassioned video after discovering that some Def Leppard fans had been scammed out of money by someone impersonating the singer online.
The singer interrupted a demo recording session to plead with people to think carefully before assuming messages from out of the blue were real, and condemned the environment in which it’s happening more and more often.
“A friend of mine just emailed me with another one of these ‘have you seen this one’ fake Joe Elliott emails, where somebody has successfully scammed money out of some of our fans,” he said in the clip below.
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“It’s been going on for a while. We do everything we can to block these things. But this is really starting to piss me off now because they’re actually getting money out of folk.”
Demonstrating he was the real Elliott, at home in Dublin, Ireland, with his family around him, he pointed to some Def Leppard box sets in the record collection behind him. “Fake that, you twat!” he said. “Not gonna be able to do it!”
He told fans: “I don’t need your money, okay? I would never, ever ask you for money because my wife’s divorcing me or my leg fell off or I need a glass eye. It’s complete and utter horseshit. Anyone who sends you an email claiming that they’re me or they’re gonna take you on a date or… I don’t know, my house fell over, it’s not true!”
The Only Time Joe Elliott Ever Asked For Money
Elliott said the only time he’d ever asked for money in his life was when he was a kid, making the request of his parents. He went on to regret that similar online scams were being staged more and more often, using a wide range of celebrity identities.
“Don’t fall for this awful, awful thing that’s going on here,” he pleaded. ‘There’s hundreds of people been scammed by, supposedly, dozens and dozens of artists.”
In an accompanying message, Def Leppard representatives said: “[No one] in or related to the band will ever message you asking for money. Please do not engage with these profiles … All communication from Joe [or] the band will be through officially-verified profiles.”
Editor’s note: One or more people have been attempting a similar scam by posing as UCR writers and asking for money in return for a promise to write an article about a specific band. We have never and will never do that, please don’t fall for these imposters.
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Gallery Credit: Chad Childers, Loudwire