Bondi Vet issues warning as hundreds of fake accounts target fans
TV personality Chris Brown, best known as the ‘Bondi Vet’ has warned of hundreds of fake Facebook accounts posing as him in a bid to deceive fans.
Those behind the profiles take photos from Brown’s genuine social media accounts and combine them with messages that attempt to engage with and manipulate fans.
It comes after The Daily Telegraph reported on a New Zealand grandmother defrauded by someone posing as the vet on social media.
AAP FactCheck discovered hundreds of fake accounts posing as the vet on Facebook alone, many using variants of “Chris vet Bondi”, “Chris Brown Vet”, “Chris Brown Bondi Vet” and “Bondi Vet Chris” as the username.
They feature genuine images of Dr Brown, taken from his actual social media accounts.
One Facebook post appears in a group claiming to be an official page of the celebrity vet.
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The real account posts information on pet issues, not pleas for engagement. Photo: AAP
The image can be found on Dr Brown’s verified Facebook page in an August 2024 post.
In another post on a fake account, a picture of Brown with a black dog is captioned: “Drop a heart if you love watching me and Bondi vet.”
The image again comes from Brown’s genuine Facebook account and an August 2023 post about the dangers of ticks.
An image from genuine 2023 post was used in a recent scam account post. Photo: AAP
The fake accounts interact with followers in the comments section before urging users to interact on different platforms, often the encrypted social media platform Telegram.
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“My love. Just click on my new telegram account and message me privately okay,” a scam comment under one post reads, while another implores: “Hi sweetheart just click on this link to text me directly on telegram if you truly love me.”
Cybercrime expert Dali Kaafar has warned that those behind the fake profiles typically target vulnerable people who may be lonely, widowed or divorced.
“These individuals would be viewed as emotionally vulnerable and in need of some sort of friendship or companionship,” Kaafar, executive director of the Macquarie University Cyber Security Hubm said.
Kaafar said scammers often spend weeks or even months building up a relationship before they start asking for money.
“It could be things like covering travel expenses or emergency medical bills or for some sort of urgency, or for investment.”
Brown has used his genuine Facebook page to counter the scammers. Photo: Facebook
Sharing an image of scam comments, he captioned a post in November 2024: “I’m sorry I even have to say this.
“But just to be clear, I don’t have any other private chat accounts, pages or other special accounts. Nor any Telegrams or chat rooms where I have offline conversations,” he wrote.
“Sadly, all of these are just scammers. And not even good ones, the way they assume I talk is a little embarrassing. And trust me, I don’t have the time!”
How to spot a Facebook scam
Exercise caution if a Facebook post includes several of these features:
- An urgent appeal to widely share the post
- No provided contact details
- Requests for users to send direct or private messages.
- Vague information about alleged giveaways.
- Account posting the content is newly created, lacks a profile picture, has few friends or is not based in the area concerned.
- Disabled comments, which prevent warnings or clarifications from other users.
