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$1 Billion worth Mercedes scammed by 28-year-old fake cancer patient

Tanish Chachra
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$1 Billion worth Mercedes scammed by 28-year-old fake cancer patient

Mercedes fell into a fake story of cancer by their fan Centurion Lewis who lured them to call him into their garage and Hungarian Grand Prix.

The eight-time world champion Mercedes got scammed by a Mercedes fan, who went by the name of CenturionLewis on Twitter. In March, the hardcore Lewis Hamilton fan claimed to be suffering from terminal cancer.

This led him to gain massive sympathy from other F1 fans. Moreover, he also posted about being involved in a car accident, in which he said he escaped safely. These all claims on social media also gained the attention of Mercedes.

“My cancer has not reduced but has started to spread around my body,” he wrote on Twitter in March. “I had emergency radiotherapy treatment and went home and then had multiple severe seizures and now admitted into hospital, potentially surgery to come.”

Mercedes invited him for a garage tour in Brackley. And he also got to be with Mercedes and travel with them for the Hungarian Grand Prix 2022.

“IM GOING TO BRACKLEY. Thank you so much @MercedesAMGF1 you really are the most incredible people and I love you even more now,” he updated on his social media.

However, two days later, it was declared that he had passed away. As a result, several tributes poured in, including from Mercedes.

Also Read: Mario Andretti claims 1/3 owner of Mercedes is too powerful for F1

Mercedes fell for it

However, a few days later, it was revealed that everything about Centurion Lewis was fake including his terminal cancer and passing away.

The account holder who goes by the name Liam T is in fact a 28-year-old man, working as a hospital porter. He has two kids and has never suffered from any form of cancer or the claimed accident. Above all, Liam is well and alive.

As soon as the fake account came to light, Mercedes took down their post and so did Liam by shutting down all his pages across the Internet.

Not only did Liam fool Mercedes but he also profited off a GoFundMe campaign as he gained sympathy for undergoing cancer treatments.

Also Read: Lewis Hamilton did not pay up ‘promised’ $3 million to father Anthony during ugly split

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra

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Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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