The frightening moment I found out my identity had been stolen
RUSSELL GRANT
A SUGAR daddy on Instagram is using photographs of astrologer Russell Grant to attract young women, the star has claimed.
Russell, 69, said a person calling himself Steven Herbert – who claims to be a realestate developer and goes by the name Steevehee – has lifted pictures from his social media pages.
Herbert, who appears to be based in the US, then appeals for “sugarbabies”, while posting images purporting to show his inflated bank balance.
Russell said: “It is frightening. The person must have chosen me for a reason, but why me?
“I am not the prettiest in the box. The thing is, he is after sugarbabies and he does not know me because I am gay. I find it bizarre.
“It looks like grooming, why else would you be posting images of how much you have in your bank account? It is weird.”
Russell was alerted to the Instagram imposter by two fans.
But despite putting in 12 complaints since Monday the former Strictly Come Dancing star said the US social media giant has not responded to his concerns and failed to remove the bogus page and pictures. One recent post from Herbert showed an image of Russell in a polo shirt – which he had worn to a charity event at the House of Commons – alongside a screenshot of a bank account which claimed to have $780,000 in it.
It was accompanied by the words: “Need more babies to spoil.”
Hashtags at the end of the post included #spoilt, #legitsugardaddy, #noscam and #sugarbabyusa. The star said it is the first time he has become aware that someone was impersonating him on social media.
But Russell added: “It seems to me that Instagram do not seem to be policing their site.
“I know many of my friends have had something similar happen to them.
“My manager said this is a common occurrence. Over the years many people have been impersonated and it is the same story, they don’t use your name but your pictures.
“But what is Instagram prepared to do about it?”
Russell has been a British household name since the 1980s and has more than 27,000 followers on his Instagram page. Yet the company has twice told him he fails to meet the criteria to be classed as a celebrity so he can have a verified account with a blue tick symbol. This would reassure fans his page was genuine.
He also claimed having a verified account would make it easier and quicker for him to get the company to remove unauthorised pictures of him.
The astrologer was a regular fixture on breakfast TV in the 1980s but only started using social media when he appeared on Strictly in 2011.
His fellow contestant Holly Valance helped him get a verified Twitter page which now attracts 49,700 followers.
He added: “Holly said you should be verified because you are on Strictly.
Instagram decides I have not met the criteria and I don’t know why to this day.
“The fact they have not verified me has left me open to this kind of attack or deception.
“In the great scheme of things we can’t have people taken in by this kind of deception.
“How many people could be subject to the same deception? Everybody is vulnerable and a certain amount of people could be taken in.
“We have seen with some social media what it can lead to, it can lead to pretty dire things. It could happen to you.”
Instagram failed to respond to repeated requests for a comment.