A woman has claimed she was scammed out of her retirement money by someone impersonating Barry Gibb from The Bee Gees.
YouTube channel Catfished revealed on October 4 that a woman by the name of Wanda believed she was in a relationship with the singer, despite Gibb being married to wife Linda Gray since 1970.
The romance began when Wanda was browsing one of Gibb’s web pages, where a button said she could message him. Though she was suspicious at first – the impersonator turned down a FaceTime offer, claiming a fan tried to blackmail him through video before – Wanda was eventually charmed by the fraud.
“It started getting really intimate, and we started really chatting and talking about visiting and stuff like that,” she said.
Wanda also questioned his decades-long marriage to Gray; in response, the person pretending to be Barry Gibb said he was leaving his wife for her. He additionally requested Wanda to search for houses in Oregon that they could live in together.
The fraud referred her to a realtor, Aaron Williams; Wanda sent him a total of over £9,000 ($11,000) from her retirement fund. The fake Barry Gibb also claimed he couldn’t access his money and didn’t want people to know about his relationship with Wanda just yet. The pair had fans donate a total of £16,400 ($20,000) to an account that Wanda could access and transfer money to the scammer, who claimed it would help get through the divorce.
Despite the supposed Gibb refusing to voice or video call Wanda, she believed he was the real Barry Gibb as he continuously assured her they would meet in person. She also said her “gut feeling” led her to believe it was actually him.
Eventually, Gibb’s verified Facebook page had posted a warning written by the singer’s son, Stephen: “I am posting on his behalf today as it seems there are several profiles pretending to be Dad on Facebook and other social media platforms. Please report and block these scam artists to the platform,” the post read.
When Wanda confronted ‘Barry Gibbs’ about the post, he responded: “Babe, doubts ruin a relationship.”
Catfished convinced Wanda to cease money transfers to the scammer. Reaching out to the real Aaron Williams, they proved that the house Wanda and Gibb were supposedly going to live in together was not only still on the market, but that no payments had been received.
The show also tracked the location of the supposed Aaron Williams to be in Lagos, Nigeria. Wanda has since blocked the fake accounts of Barry Gibb and Aaron Williams, and she is changing her bank information. Wanda was also shown recent footage of Gibb and Gray at their 50th anniversary to prove they were still married.
They added: “The next step is for her to file a police report and we are turning everything we were able to find out over to the EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission)”.
A Bee Gees biopic was announced back in 2020 with Bradley Cooper rumoured to play Barry Gibbs himself. Anthony McCarten, who wrote 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody starring Rami Malek, has also been in talks to work on the Bee Gees biopic.
Barry Gibb is the sole surviving member of the Bee Gees following the deaths of his brothers Maurice in 2003 and Robin in 2012.