While Atlanta Braves fan favorite and 2021 World Series champion Travis d’Arnaud has moved on to another team, he posted information on Tuesday that warned fans of a potential scam due to an unfortunate case of stolen identity and fraud.
According to the recently departed d’Arnaud in a post on social media, after having a few of his identification cards stolen, a person is now online pulling out all the stops trying to scam unsuspecting fans.
Play No. 68 of 2024: Travis d’Arnaud helps the @Braves’ hunt for October with a HUGE walk-off homer. pic.twitter.com/7dDURlCj2R
— MLB (@MLB) December 2, 2024
What Travis d’Arnaud warns fans of in stolen identity case
Over his four seasons with the Braves, Travis d’Arnaud became a fan favorite and respected leader in the clubhouse. In his first season with the club, he played 44 out of the 60 games and took home his first Silver Slugger. The next season, was cut short by injuries, but he still performed well in the playoffs, catching every single inning during the championship run.
While he was more or less the backup catcher the past two seasons, fans were still heartbroken to see him depart for the Angels this offseason.
While he was able to land a great contract with the Angels, he hasn’t had the best of offseasons. Unfortunately, for the 12-year vet, at some point, his Georgia driver’s license and MLB players card were stolen, as he told his Instagram followers over a story.
While he’ll almost certainly be able to replace those two I.D.’s pretty quickly, the thief has unfortunately been using them to try and scam potential TdA fans. Using an A.I. voice, the scammer, pretending to be d’Arnaud, has been requesting fans over Facebook and Microsoft Teams for “charitable donations”.
The scammer has taken it beyond just sending messages, d’Arnaud reveals. Now, social media scams have become frighteningly good. Instead of just sending messages from accounts pretending to be that person, users can now use A.I. voice cloning. A public figure like d’Arnaud could easily have their voice cloned and deceive even the closest of family members to fork over cash to scammers.
If you’re approached by a Travis d’Arnaud Facebook account to make a donation, be warned. The former Braves catcher noted that he doesn’t have Facebook, meaning that account is a 100% fraudulant account and should be reported as soon as possible.
