In case you missed it, a woman recently faced something pretty unfortunate. We reported on it when it happened - Patricia Linson genuinely believed she was talking to country star Kenny Chesney.
She had shelled out over $300,000 to a scammer pretending to be him. He had apparently asked for donations throughout the scam - and she'd followed through with it.
And she pinned the blame on none other than Kenny Chesney. No, not that Kenny Chesney - the real one! Her lawsuit alleges that Chesney was negligent in his conduct because he didn't warn fans about possible scammers.
The lawsuit itself reads, "Linson alleged, among other things, that Chesney likely knew third parties were impersonating him to steal money from others. And that he owed her a duty to warn and protect her against such scams."
But that's not all - Linson also accused a staffer working for the country star of drip-feeding the scammer information to make him seem more believable.
"Linson also alleged that an unknown employee of Chesney may have aided and abetted the impersonator by leaking confidential information about Chesney's music business to the impersonator, which the impersonator used to convince Linson that he was Chesney."
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The Country Star Has Been Dismissed From the Case
Of course, the whole thing sounds pretty wild, right? That's exactly what the courts thought - they released a ruling dismissing the country star from the case.
They started their ruling by explaining that scams are getting more and more common, and it should be something to be worried about. "We do not doubt that financial scams are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent as technological developments make it easier for people to impersonate others," they wrote, per Yahoo! Entertainment.
However, they said that it would completely violate "common sense and sound public policy to require celebrities to post warnings about third-party scams on their websites and social media accounts lest they face liability."
They're right - the advent of more and more advanced financial scams is something to worry about. But just remember - if something is too good to be true, it likely is. Stay safe out there!
