Right royal nonsense: online scam roasted for being most pathetic ever
It hasn’t taken long for scammers to swoop in and take advantage of the Queen’s death, only two short weeks after her funeral was watched by literally billions of people.
Pretty audacious then for this particular scammer to think that pretending the Queen is actually still alive would fool anyone for even a moment.
Twitter account UberFacts shared a screenshot of just such an attempt that has been circulating on Instagram.
An account pretending to be the Queen herself is behind these ludicrous messages, with the handle @queenelizabet._3 ... and the messages claim the Queen isn't dead, that she's simply been shipped off to a desert island by King Charles so that he could ascend to the throne.
According to the message, "the Queen" "can't get hold of her royal money" - and needs people to send her some cash so she can return to the UK.
The absurd message concludes with "Tea and biscuits" and a Union Jack flag emoji.
As expected, the scam was thoroughly mocked online for its outrageous attempt at conning people out of money.
Scammers come up with new ways to target social media users every day, but there are a few ways to help protect yourself and your information including: treating contact from unfamiliar accounts with caution - particularly if it claims to be an official account. Even if it is familiar, legitimate users often get hacked, so it still pays to watch out.
Don't click on suspicious links or attachments - these are often the most dangerous parts of a scam message. As always, if you're unsure, better to be safe than sorry and avoid the links and messages altogether.
Image: Twitter