{"id":674054,"date":"2026-05-16T04:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674054\/"},"modified":"2026-05-16T04:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-16T04:59:08","slug":"dr-chris-brown-responds-to-fan-targeted-in-catfishing-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/674054\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr Chris Brown responds to fan targeted in catfishing scam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Popular TV personality Dr Chris Brown has found himself caught up in yet another catfishing scam.<\/p>\n

The beloved Bondi vet was alerted to the hoax by one of his Instagram followers who privately messaged him on the app to tell him his image was being used on free messaging service WhatsApp.<\/p>\n

The follower claimed that someone had been using Brown\u2019s likeness on the app, posing as him to supposedly lure female victims, like her sister. <\/p>\n

\u201cHey Chris. I was wondering if you are talking to someone in [redacted]? My sister thinks it\u2019s you,\u201d the message read, which Brown screenshot and shared on his Instagram Stories. <\/p>\n

\u201cSorry [redacted]. That\u2019s not me and is likely to be a scammer. This sadly happens a lot,\u201d he replied as per the screenshot. <\/p>\n

\u201cThank you for answering. I have tried to tell her that it is a scammer. She won\u2019t listen. She met him on Whatsapp,\u201d the follower replied.<\/p>\n

In a captioned overlayed on the screenshot, Brown wrote that he sadly receives messages like this daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI get about 5 of these a day,\u201d he revealed. \u201cAnd WhatsApp seems to be popular right now. The \u2018other\u2019 me is a busy guy\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n

Indeed, Brown issued a warning to fans back in 2024, reminding them that he doesn\u2019t have any private chat accounts online and warning them not to engage if they receive a message from him on these platforms.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m sorry I even have to say this. But just to be clear, I don\u2019t have any other private chat accounts, pages or other special accounts. Nor any Telegrams or chat rooms where I have offline conversations,\u201d he wrote on Facebook<\/a> at the time. <\/p>\n

\u201cSadly, all of these are just scammers. And not even good ones, the way they assume I talk is a little embarrassing. And trust me, I don\u2019t have the time!\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut seriously, please report and then ignore them. As quickly as I block them, more seem to appear. But we will get there! On Facebook, it\u2019s just me with this blue tick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather be talking pets than scammers but enough is enough,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n

But his warning fell on deaf ears for some when it was revealed in May 2025 that a British woman had been defrauded out of $22,800 by scammers who posed as the Bondi Vet star.<\/p>\n

According to the Daily Telegraph<\/a>, sophisticated scammers used AI-generated photos, video calls and emotionally manipulative messages to catfish Lisa Nock, 44.<\/p>\n

The impostor even went as far as faking video calls that apparently showed Brown filming in Africa and in TV studios as \u201cproof\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was vulnerable and wanted to believe we could be friends, we both love animals, I had lost my partner in a car crash a few years ago,\u201d Nock, who is from Staffordshire, told the masthead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want Chris to know people operating as him are scamming people,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m no fool, I just fell for the cleverness of AI.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Popular TV personality Dr Chris Brown has found himself caught up in yet another catfishing scam. The beloved…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6074,64,63,27931,325149,325146,447,325152,31366,247538,325141,17343,134,2456,325142,795,325150,325144,325143,325145,325153,55906,325140,325147,325151,325148],"class_list":["post-674054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-africa","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-bondi","tag-british-woman","tag-catfishing-scam","tag-celebrities","tag-chat-rooms","tag-chris-brown","tag-christine-salazar","tag-cruel-catfishing-scam","tag-daily-telegraph","tag-entertainment","tag-facebook","tag-female-victims","tag-inc","tag-lisa-nock","tag-love-animals","tag-manipulative-messages","tag-offline-conversations","tag-private-chat-accounts","tag-reese-witherspoon","tag-scamhollywood-actress","tag-special-accounts","tag-video-calls","tag-warned-fans"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}