Sir Sam Neill has issued an urgent warning to his fans after discovering his image is being used in a social media scam.
The Jurassic Park actor, 75, took to Instagram on Thursday to warn his social media followers about “fraudsters” who are using his image along with a “verified” blue tick in a bid to scam fans out of money.
Sharing a screenshot of one of the offending profiles, he told his followers to “please ignore” any friend requests they have received from the fake accounts on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
He wrote in a lengthy caption: “This is one of a number of scam accounts on social media pretending to be me.
“They now start including blue ticks to make them look like a verified account.
“Please note anyone contacting you saying they are me, represent me, are from my management team or similar is a fake!”
The Kiwi actor added that the fraudsters “will start conversations that always end in scamming you out of money”.
He also urged followers to report all scam accounts “so these fraudsters pages can be shut down”.
Sir Sam’s warning comes almost five months after he revealed in his memoir Did I Ever Tell You This that he has been diagnosed with stage three blood cancer.
The Hollywood star told the Guardian in an interview about his book that he started writing about his life as a way to keep busy while receiving treatment last year.
He said: “I never had any intention to write a book.
“But as I went on and kept writing, I realised it was actually sort of giving me a reason to live and I would go to bed thinking, ‘I’ll write about that tomorrow … that will entertain me.’
“And so it was a lifesaver really, because I couldn’t have gone through that with nothing to do, you know.”
Sir Sam first experienced swollen glands during publicity for Jurassic World Dominion in March last year and was soon diagnosed with angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma.
His memoir discussed receiving chemotherapy, which started to fail, before taking a new chemotherapy drug which he will take monthly for the rest of his life — despite now being cancer-free.
He said: “I can’t pretend that the last year hasn’t had its dark moments.
“But those dark moments throw the light into sharp relief, you know, and have made me grateful for every day and immensely grateful for all my friends.
“Just pleased to be alive.”
Sir Sam, who reprised his role as Alan Grant in the blockbuster Jurassic Park franchise last year, has also starred as Major Chester Campbell in hit BBC series Peaky Blinders.
