Tony Hadley warns fans over online scams: ‘I would never ask anyone for money’
The 64 year-old former Spandau Ballet singer said he does not contact fans directly and wants people to be aware of fake accounts.
Singer Tony Hadley has warned fans about scammers pretending to be him to extract money.
The 64-year-old former Spandau Ballet frontman, known for hit songs True and Gold, said he does not contact fans directly and wants people to be aware of fake accounts online.
He described it as a “nightmare”, especially for older fans who may not be aware of the different techniques scammers use to trick people into giving away their money.
Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Hadley said: “I think it’s happening across the board. We’ve had several fans approach us and say that they were approached by someone purporting to be me… and then trying to extract money from people as well.
“I would never do that.”
The singer added that the fake accounts often do not look like him, only “vaguely”, adding that artificial intelligence (AI) poses a greater threat because it helps con artists create accounts that make it difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is a scam.
“The problem you’ve got is that, with AI, you can do and create anything. So what’s a scam? What’s not? I mean, I’m so cautious.
“If you’re an older person or someone who’s not aware of these things, it’s a real, real problem, and for the fans out there, it’s a nightmare. But you know, it’s something we have to make people aware of.
“I would certainly never ask anyone for money … and I don’t contact, very rarely contact, the fans directly.
“It’s not me. Also, it wouldn’t be anybody else. I don’t know any other artists that would say ‘Oh, I’ve hit a hard luck story. Can you send me some money?’ No, we would never do that. It just doesn’t happen.
“The social media thing, if I’m honest, I don’t actually even like it. I mean, if it went tomorrow, I’d be really happy.”
Hadley rose to fame as the lead singer of Spandau Ballet, the London pop band behind the 1980s hits True and Gold, which reached number one and number two in the charts respectively.
The group he had co-founded in the late 1970s split in 1990 and he embarked on a solo career until the band got back together for a tour in 2009.
Hadley left the group again in 2017 citing “circumstances beyond my control” in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
The singer is due to perform at the Rewind Dreamland festival in Margate and Let’s Rock in Shrewsbury this summer before kicking off a European tour followed by a Christmas Big Band Tour from November until December.
Hadley and his band will then head off for a tour in Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia in March next year.
