A Texas woman didn’t just think she was dating Morgan Wallen. She thought the singer had given her a job and sent her first-person videos.
She was catfished, and the moment she realizes it’s all fake is devastating.
- The popular Catfished YouTube channel recently focused in on Desiree’s story of being fooled by a Morgan Wallen impersonator.
- The nearly 30-minute-long video (seen below) explores how a romance scam works as the hosts reveal the truth about what happened.
- Desiree says she took on over $18,000 in debt and fears she might need to file for bankruptcy.
What Is Catfishing?
Catfishing is when someone creates a fake identify to convince another person to provide financial information or to make purchases on their behalf. Often the scammer will create a story that pulls at someone’s heartstrings or preys on their vulnerabilities.
In almost every case, the scammer requests money, gift cards or other items of value. Dozens of country music’s biggest and most popular stars have emphasized that they’ll never reach out to fans for money, because every year dozens of fans fall for scams.
Morgan Wallen Catfished Scam Exposed
Desiree’s (last name unknown) story proves that elderly people and those without technological savvy aren’t the only ones vulnerable to scams.
The 34-year-old dancer says she’s always been the type to date someone with more money and prestige than her, which the channel’s hosts Drew and Breanne suspect made her vulnerable to begin with.
“I needed validation at this time and I think I got it through this person,” Desiree says.
What happens next is almost a textbook online scam. She says she direct messaged the real Morgan Wallen on Instagram, just to say she liked his music. Later, a user with a similar Instagram handle direct messaged her and they struck up a relationship.
Over the next few days, weeks or even months, she felt they were becoming more intimate, but Desiree never actually met this person in person. Instead, the fake Morgan sent many text messages and a video that the Catfished team would later determine was created using artificial intelligence. When you watch closely, the teeth move in an unnatural way.
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The real video was posted to Wallen’s Instagram page in 2022. It has since been deleted, but in it he talked about the popularity of his Dangerous album.
Where this particular scam takes a unique turn is when the fake Morgan tells Desiree he’d like to give her a job. She applies and goes through the hiring process with what she thinks is a real staffing agency. She then turns over personal information like her social security number, bank account number, credit card numbers and more. Her job with Wallen’s charity is to use the money provided to her to buy many high-dollar gift cards.
The Catfished team reached out to Wallen’s agency and the staffing company and neither responded, although at the end of the video, a screen appears with text that makes it clear neither were involved with the scam or had ever communicated with Desiree.
“This is all one big fat lie,” host Drew says.
Desiree breaks down during the final few minutes of the video.
Even though she came to the channel with her story, and even though many people doubted her romance when she posted about it on social media, she still seemed to hold out hope that the real Morgan Wallen was eager to be with her.
The most heartbreaking part is no doubt when she says she may have to file for bankruptcy.
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See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born
Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes