Desmond Tan asking fans for money? Actor warns of Instagram scammers impersonating him

He's one of the most popular celebrities here, but has Desmond Tan fallen on hard times, with only his loyal fans to turn to for money?

Some of his supporters have reportedly received messages from Instagram accounts claiming to be his, requesting for money transfers. 

Fact is, it isn't really him.

Today (Jan 16), Desmond posted on his Instagram Story saying he has only one Instagram account "thedesmondtan", and advises the public not to send money to anyone posing as him.

In his posts, he said he was alerted to the impersonators' actions when concerned fans dropped messages to his real Instagram account.

"Hello, do you need money urgently? Do you need me to transfer money to you? Or is someone using your name to scam others?" the messages from the supporter read.

The recent influx of similar enquiries left him worried that some of his fans would fall prey to the deceit. 

He found at least two accounts impersonating him. 

One has the username "desmondtanaccount", which sports his photo and claims to be Desmond's temporary private account dedicated to fans.

Another account goes by the username "23han.g8857". It uses his image as the display photo, but calls himself Richard.

AsiaOne's attempts to find "desmondtanaccount" turned out to be fruitless — the account has since been deleted or renamed.

"23han.g8857" is still around, though it now sports a profile picture of another man.

Scammers or catfishers? Just be careful.

rainercheung@asiaone.com