James McAvoy narrowly avoided being scammed out of £10,000.
The ‘Split’ actor – who has son Brendan, eight, with estranged wife Anne-Marie Duff – has issued a warning to fans after being convinced by a fake website for the Ritz-Carlton, Abama, in Spain while trying to book a family holiday.
He said in a video posted to Instagram: "Hello, there! I’m James McAvoy. I have just avoided being scammed through a cyber scamming scheme online and I’m just making this video to draw your attention to it."
He explained how he had found a site that was "actually better" than the hotel’s genuine website, showing off a photo of the one he visited.
He said: "Don’t use them. They nearly took 10 grand off of me, which is a ton of money. Some guy called Joaquin emailing me back and forth, [I] nearly made a bank transfer. Very convincing.
"Their website is actually better than the Ritz-Carlton’s website. It’s extremely convincing, replete with a phone number, stuff like that. Just very, very convincing."
The 39-year-old actor explained in a second video he had filled out a booking form and was later asked to "make a payment via a bank transfer after sending them a picture" of his passport.
He added: "That’s something that I’ve done before in the past which seems legit.
"Paying by bank transfer instead of credit card or check actually seems like a safer way to do it. You also get a 10 percent discount, they say by doing a bank transfer. Again, more incentive to get excited about it."
But James decided to get the deal double-checked as it seemed "too good to be true".
He admitted: "I just thought the deal seemed too good to be true so I double-checked it with a travel agent and it was, of course, a tenth of the price that it should be. So I’m not going on that holiday!"
The former ‘Shameless’ actor confirmed he had alerted the hotel to what had happened, and said: "They know now."
James McAvoy narrowly dodged holiday scam
