Swedish woman scammed online after paying ‘ransom’ for ‘kidnapped Keanu Reeves’

A Swedish woman fell foul of a scam after she was fooled into believing she was having an online relationship with the Hollywood actor, Keanu Reeves.

As a result, the Oskarshamn resident lost around SEK 200,000 (approx €17,500), aftonbladet.se reported this Wednesday, November 15, citing Barometern.

Initially, she received several friend requests from ‘Keanu’ on social media. The pair subsequently started chatting and the ‘actor’ agreed to travel to Oskarshamn to meet his intended victim.

How was the scam executed?

However, he informed the woman – thought to be in her 60s – that his bank account had been frozen so she agreed to fund his trip to Kalmar County and also paid for his Covid certificate.

‘Keanu’ then got ‘kidnapped’ when he went to the airport and asked the woman if she could pay the ransom to get him released. Unwittingly, the woman transferred the aforementioned sum of money only to eventually realise that she had been duped.

Speaking with Barometern, police spokesperson Robert Loeffel said: ‘Our advice is to never accept friend requests on social media from people you don’t know, whether they are celebrities or not. They are extremely skilful and manipulative. It is a great offence to the person affected’.