Please Stop Following Keanu Reeves or Other Celebrities for Your Sanity, Safety, and Security on Substack as No Celebrity Will Subscribe to Your Newsletters.
Thanks so much Mehmet! I did indeed get a "Keanu Reeves" subscriber and will eliminate whoever it is immediately. Also got Heather Cox Richardson subscribing. Right!~ Then there was a "Donna" who restacked 9 of my stories, and said she was the recipient of a 2,500,000 lottery in New Jersey and wanted to give those who responded $5000 because she wanted to make people "happy." I responded, and got involved with a lengthy back-and-forth text with her before reporting her to Substack and they took care of getting her off (I was not the only one she's restacked). And now I get numerous DMs complimenting me, saying "hello," or "how's your day going?" and it's amazing how many of them there are. I so appreciate what you're doing to help us, here and on Medium. My close call was one of the stories published on Medium in "Illumination" https://medium.com/illumination/the-scam-a-cautionary-tale-fdc814d00011 (did you ever see the film "The Beekeeper?") Hope this finds you well. Patricia
Thank you, for this reminder Dr. Mehmet. I, too, was scammed on Instagram back in 2023 and my weakness was in being too nice and trying to help out a fellow ‘artist.’ He took over my entire account. I absolutely know better now and only allow those I know personally on that platform. But it’s true, it can happen to anyone. At least we know better now!
Thank you Dr Yildiz for writing this important newsletter We need to be always vigilant online. You've given excellent advice. No-one should think they're immune to scammers. They start in a way that seems normal, so the red flags aren't obvious at the start. When they get someone hooked in, it's too late. Therefore relying on ANYTHING that is suspicious at the start is crucial. That's the stage that's important. We need to be very critical thinkers online. I would advice taking serious heed to anything at all that is unusual, and trust your instincts. It IS highly unusual for a famous celebrity to suddenly start following and subscribing to someone out of the blue. Go by FACTS, nothing else.
I know, know. I've had scads of 50 something males follow me. I'm much older and have been married for 42 years. I have my companion for life. One of the scammers got careless and used the same picture. How do I get rid of these intruders?
Thanks for this evaluation. Scammers have no conscience. They're the lowest of low.
But now in the US, we have a guy who's not protecting us.
My son is taking a Bachelor's degree in Cyber Security. So he gets info about this sort of thing. Recently Bitdefender published what is happening in the US cyber security agency. Which recently received a directive from the top to stop following and/or blocking Russian hackers and scammers. That is shocking (but in a way not surprising!). So now we've got to be even more cautious. It's a terrible, sad thing. 😢
I don't blame people fall into the deepfakes as sometimes when I watch them on YouTube I even believe they are real. New sophisticated AI tools made them easy to create. Even teenagers now have access to these tools and create realistic videos of celebrities. We cannot talk enough on this cyber-security issue. I checked Substack and there are still various profiles using Keanu Reeves. I wonder why Substack does not delete them. Maybe it deletes them and they keep coming. Who knows! Thanks for educating us Dr Yildiz. I had a few scam accounts approached me and with the insights I gained from you they couldn't do anything to me.
As someone who has been scammed multiple times due to my inherent trust in others, this story struck a deep chord with me. I experienced something similar on Medium when my account was first cloned—I felt awful, my trust in the platform shattered. https://medium.com/illumination/wtf-i-was-cloned-on-medium-and-im-intensely-concerned-as-a-friend-of-medium-bf8192603daa But it didn’t stop there. My account was cloned multiple times, and when I decided to take a stand against the scammers, what did Medium do? Instead of support, they restricted my distribution, burying my stories from real readers. My earnings plummeted from $500 to $20. This is how Medium treats authentic writers and engaged readers. It was one of the key reasons I chose to downgrade my FoM account, something I was once passionate about. While Medium presents itself as a champion of writers, its actions suggest otherwise. Silencing authentic voices and sweeping issues under the rug—especially by banning meta stories from the paywall—raises serious concerns about its commitment to transparency and fairness. Thank you for raising awareness with your educational stories and newsletters on both platforms. We need to work as a community to fight against scammers. Arrogance will not work. Anyone can be scammed.
Well. I am currently being scammed as someone posing as Zak Bagans a tv personality on Discovery +
I started to fall for it. but caught myself.
Thanks so much Mehmet! I did indeed get a "Keanu Reeves" subscriber and will eliminate whoever it is immediately. Also got Heather Cox Richardson subscribing. Right!~ Then there was a "Donna" who restacked 9 of my stories, and said she was the recipient of a 2,500,000 lottery in New Jersey and wanted to give those who responded $5000 because she wanted to make people "happy." I responded, and got involved with a lengthy back-and-forth text with her before reporting her to Substack and they took care of getting her off (I was not the only one she's restacked). And now I get numerous DMs complimenting me, saying "hello," or "how's your day going?" and it's amazing how many of them there are. I so appreciate what you're doing to help us, here and on Medium. My close call was one of the stories published on Medium in "Illumination" https://medium.com/illumination/the-scam-a-cautionary-tale-fdc814d00011 (did you ever see the film "The Beekeeper?") Hope this finds you well. Patricia
Thank you for this informative article. Scammers are everywhere and none of us are immune. We need to look after ourselves and each other.
Thank you, for this reminder Dr. Mehmet. I, too, was scammed on Instagram back in 2023 and my weakness was in being too nice and trying to help out a fellow ‘artist.’ He took over my entire account. I absolutely know better now and only allow those I know personally on that platform. But it’s true, it can happen to anyone. At least we know better now!
Great advice! Thank you Dr Mehmet for sharing- yes- the scammers ARE getting very sophisticated!!!
We all can fall into their traps. Thank you very much for the warning Dr Yildiz. I’ll spread the word with the community.
Thank you Dr Yildiz for writing this important newsletter We need to be always vigilant online. You've given excellent advice. No-one should think they're immune to scammers. They start in a way that seems normal, so the red flags aren't obvious at the start. When they get someone hooked in, it's too late. Therefore relying on ANYTHING that is suspicious at the start is crucial. That's the stage that's important. We need to be very critical thinkers online. I would advice taking serious heed to anything at all that is unusual, and trust your instincts. It IS highly unusual for a famous celebrity to suddenly start following and subscribing to someone out of the blue. Go by FACTS, nothing else.
Thanks for sharing this wisdom! I just removed my phone number from my invoices.
I know, know. I've had scads of 50 something males follow me. I'm much older and have been married for 42 years. I have my companion for life. One of the scammers got careless and used the same picture. How do I get rid of these intruders?
Thanks for this evaluation. Scammers have no conscience. They're the lowest of low.
But now in the US, we have a guy who's not protecting us.
My son is taking a Bachelor's degree in Cyber Security. So he gets info about this sort of thing. Recently Bitdefender published what is happening in the US cyber security agency. Which recently received a directive from the top to stop following and/or blocking Russian hackers and scammers. That is shocking (but in a way not surprising!). So now we've got to be even more cautious. It's a terrible, sad thing. 😢
I can't keep up with the scammers. I really appreciate that you do.
I don't blame people fall into the deepfakes as sometimes when I watch them on YouTube I even believe they are real. New sophisticated AI tools made them easy to create. Even teenagers now have access to these tools and create realistic videos of celebrities. We cannot talk enough on this cyber-security issue. I checked Substack and there are still various profiles using Keanu Reeves. I wonder why Substack does not delete them. Maybe it deletes them and they keep coming. Who knows! Thanks for educating us Dr Yildiz. I had a few scam accounts approached me and with the insights I gained from you they couldn't do anything to me.
As someone who has been scammed multiple times due to my inherent trust in others, this story struck a deep chord with me. I experienced something similar on Medium when my account was first cloned—I felt awful, my trust in the platform shattered. https://medium.com/illumination/wtf-i-was-cloned-on-medium-and-im-intensely-concerned-as-a-friend-of-medium-bf8192603daa But it didn’t stop there. My account was cloned multiple times, and when I decided to take a stand against the scammers, what did Medium do? Instead of support, they restricted my distribution, burying my stories from real readers. My earnings plummeted from $500 to $20. This is how Medium treats authentic writers and engaged readers. It was one of the key reasons I chose to downgrade my FoM account, something I was once passionate about. While Medium presents itself as a champion of writers, its actions suggest otherwise. Silencing authentic voices and sweeping issues under the rug—especially by banning meta stories from the paywall—raises serious concerns about its commitment to transparency and fairness. Thank you for raising awareness with your educational stories and newsletters on both platforms. We need to work as a community to fight against scammers. Arrogance will not work. Anyone can be scammed.
It seems that any long-running publication is being stifled.