Lukas Nelson Had A Fan Show Up At A Recent Show Who Had Been Convinced By An Online Scammer That They Were In A Relationship

If there’s no blue check mark, don’t even open the message…

Lukas Nelson is the guest on the Joe Rogan Experience today, and they talked about his new album American Romance, what it was like growing up with an iconic father like Willie Nelson, and how Lukas has come into his own as a musician with his aforementioned debut solo album.

They also got into conversation about fame and what it was like for him to be around legends as a kid like Kris Kristofferson and Muhammad Ali, and how that actually taught him about the trappings of fame and how his dad’s friends didn’t make it very long because of some of the bad things that come along with being famous. It’s interesting that his take away was that fame is a net negative, because you’d think someone from a family like that would be the complete opposite.

Lukas also got to talking about what it’s like being a musician in the modern age, the fame that comes with it, and how posting on social media is a necessary evil in many ways. He told Rogan how people will create fake accounts pretending that they’re him and steal money from his fans, in some cases, thousands of dollars. It’s something we unfortunately see too often, and he said it’s made him want to quit being online altogether, though that often makes it worse.

I think we’ve all seen these stories about people online getting tricked into sending someone they think is a celebrity they like money, and they constantly spam people and try to take advantage of people who may be extra gullible or unable to fully comprehend what they’re doing, and it’s so sick and wrong:

“I don’t depend on my parents, so I want my music to get out there so that I’ll have a career when I’m 90. I wanna be playing… I mean, eventually I have to keep making a living. You think there’s part of the entertainment world where you have to put yourself out there. And that’s despite knowing that when you put out yourself out there, then you get unwanted attention too.

I think one of the worst things about it is the scammers on the Internet. There’s so many scammers now on Instagram and Facebook, and they prey on elderly people. They pretend they’re me, and they go out there and these people… I think they’re the lowest form on this planet, really. Because these are people that have dementia issues, they’re elderly, you know, and they and they prey on that demographic specifically.

Because they know that they’re more gullible and don’t understand technology, and they think that I’m talking to them and they’ll give, in some cases, thousands and thousands of dollars of their own savings in my name. And that has almost made me get off the Internet many times. But even so, what happens when I get off is they just run rampant, you know. They create new accounts, and they don’t want to believe it’s not me. And so the people that are caught in it get caught, and they get hooked.”

Rogan talked about how it often happens with romantic relationships online, and Lukas recalled an incident recently where someone showed up to a concert in Nashville he was playing at Chief’s, and said he had put their name on his guest list and they were in a relationship, when in reality, they had been catfished online:

“It’s the saddest thing. That just happened to us recently, I played a show with Eric Church at Chief’s and I had a bunch of friends there and everything. And we had someone show up at the door saying that they had been put on the list by me, that I was in a relationship with that person.”

Rogan joked:

“Are you sure they weren’t just schizophrenic?”

He responded by saying that the sad part is that many of them do have mental issues or ailments, which makes it even more gross when people take advantage of that:

“Well these people are in some cases schizophrenic. Or they have Alzheimer’s, or dementia, or memory issues or whatever. But a lot of times they’re just being catfished. There’s that show catfish that was on TV and not too long ago, I don’t know if it’s still around, but like these are otherwise sort of normal people.

They get tricked into believing they’re in a relationship and they have a girlfriend and they’re online. These are sometimes younger people… it just shows you how easily, sometimes even intelligent people can be man manipulated.”

There’s been tons of other artists who have spoken out about these kinds of fake accounts, and it sucks that there are people like that out there who scam innocent people out of a lot of money, but if there’s not a blue check mark, don’t ever respond because someone’s trying to get you too.

Of course, I think in many cases people just want to believe it could be a real conversation or even relationship, which Nelson also mentioned, but like everything online, you have to be so careful what you put out there and who you interact with. It’s a cautionary tale, and your favorite artist is never going to ask you for money, and they’re probably never going to DM you and randomly ask you to go out on a date or anything of that nature, wither… sorry to burst your bubble, but it seems like a good time for the reminder because we’ve written countless articles about scams just like this.

It was a really interesting conversation all-around, and if you haven’t already listened to American Romance, you’re missing out, so start with that and then come back here to watch the full podcast episode:

The post Lukas Nelson Had A Fan Show Up At A Recent Show Who Had Been Convinced By An Online Scammer That They Were In A Relationship first appeared on Whiskey Riff.