Longtime fan given suspended term after forwarding nearly €130,000 in fake rock-star scam

The court heard the defendant – a longtime fan who was contacted on Facebook – agreed to take sponsor payments into her account, convert them to cryptocurrency and forward them to an impostor who claimed to be avoiding an ex-spouse in a divorce. The scam began in March 2025 and the money actually came from six other victims.

She told the court she did not know the funds were obtained by fraud. She said she had tried to verify the sender by googling a phone number and was reassured by photos, videos and voice messages, and that contact with the impostor turned romantic.

The Pirkanmaa district court found those checks were insufficient; she had not called the number, requested a meeting or contacted the alleged record label. The court handed down a suspended prison sentence of one year and four months and ordered her to pay more than €100,000 in compensation. The police preliminary investigation did not identify the main fraudster, and the ruling is not yet final. The details were reported by YLE.

Police have previously warned about online scams that can leave victims out of pocket and prompt money-laundering suspicions. Recent cases include ticket scams this summer's ticket-scam warnings and a March advisory on an AITM phishing scheme the AITM phishing investigation.