Tyler Perry Warns Fans Not To Fall For Facebook Scams Using His Name
(CBS) -- "It's Tyler Perry. I'm not giving away anything," the movie mogul proclaimed on Facebook on Tuesday. Tyler Perry took to social media to warn his fans about "scams" using his name and face in promotions on Facebook.
"I am not giving away anything on Facebook. I am not giving away any money. My team has to shut down these things every day," the "Madea" creator and actor said in the video.
Within 15 hours of Perry posting the warning message, it was viewed more than 4 million times. Perry urged people to share it with others and help spread the word about these scams.
"Please do me a favor, post this everywhere so people will know that is not true," he said. "Do not give your information to any of these people, do not give them anything. I don't know who they are but every day we have to get 10, 20, 30 of those things shut down on Facebook."
Perry did not specify the nature of the scams, but he kept reiterating that unauthorized people were using his name for "giveaways."
"In my life, I'm a giver. I give a lot of things to a lot of people to a lot of employees -- random things, cars, houses -- I do. But that is not true. The Facebook stuff, I'm not giving away anything. Stop it, devil." Perry ended the video. A search of "Tyler Perry" Facebook pages shows there are hundreds of unauthorized accounts using the actor's name. His true accounts are verified by blue checkmarks.
This is not the first time the star has combatted what he calls "scams" on Facebook. Four years ago, he posted a similar warning message to his followers, in which he wrote: "There are some scams going around the Internet asking people to pay money to have an audition for me. THAT IS NOT TRUE. You never have to pay for an audition."
