Mercedes were allegedly scammed by a 28-year-old man with a Lewis Hamilton fan account on social media called ‘CenturionLewis’. On Twitter, the man was posing as an avid fan of the seven-time world champion and as a 20-year-old boy, tragically suffering from terminal cancer.
In March earlier this year, he posted about his worsening battle with cancer, stating:
Earlier in July, he even claimed to have gotten into a near-fatal car crash, gathering plenty of sympathy from others on social media. These posts caught the attention of Mercedes, who reportedly invited him to Brackley to tour the factories and watch the 2022 F1 Hungarian Grand Prix.
Later in July, he announced that Mercedes had given him the opportunity to visit the team in Brackley, posting:
Two days later, it was announced on the ‘CenturionLewis’ Twitter account that he had passed away. As a result, tributes flooded social media.
The tweet announcing the account holder’s alleged demise read:
Mercedes, too, posted their condolences to the account holder after the announcement was made.
However, in a shocking turn of events, a few days later it was revealed that everything about this Twitter account was fake. The account holder, allegedly named “Liam T”, is in fact a 28-year-old man, working as a hospital porter. He has two children and has not suffered from cancer or the supposed car accident. Most importantly, Liam is alive and well.
As soon as the news broke, Mercedes immediately took down their posts regarding Liam’s supposed death. The 28-year-old not only tricked the team into an exclusive tour and access to the Hungarian Grand Prix but also profited off a GoFundMe campaign after gaining sympathies for undergoing cancer treatments. This took social media by storm, and Liam shut down all of his pages across the internet.
Some speculate that while Liam took down his ‘CenturionLewis’ page, he is still present on social media using other fake accounts.
Check out the entire thread revealing the fake account below:
Mercedes, who started off the season on a rough note with worrying porpoising issues, no longer seem to be facing this problem after a smooth and promising 2022 F1 Hungarian GP.
The team’s trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, told Auto Motor und Sport:
The Silver Arrows currently stand third in the constructors’ standings, with 334 points to their name.
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