Ray Allen doesn’t have the best history when it comes to using the internet. Remember the time he accidentally sent out that tweet that was definitely supposed to be a DM? It might actually be one of the worst athlete-related social media fails of all time.
With that in mind, you would think Allen would be extra careful when it comes to who he talks to online. But according to court documents obtained by TMZ Sports, the former NBA star is currently at the center of a really bizarre—and really embarrassing—catfishing scandal that is potentially going to lead to more of his personal information being exposed.
According to the documents, Allen claims he was catfished by a man who pretended to be several different women while communicating with him. Allen reportedly met the "women" in different online forums and exchanged information with them. But at some point, Allen realized he was being catfished and ended his talks with the women.
That’s when the story took a weird turn. After Allen cut off ties with the catfisher, the guy reportedly started posting things about Allen online and tagging his family members in the posts. He also started showing up at the restaurant that Allen’s wife owns in Orlando. And while Allen was eventually able to convince him to sign a confidentiality agreement, Allen is now accusing him of breaking that agreement and continuing to use his personal info against him.
Oh, and wait, it gets weirder! At some point, the guy took out a restraining order against Allen and accused him of stalking him. That restraining order was granted, but Allen claims it was unnecessary because he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the guy. In turn, he has now filed a restraining order of his own and is asking a court to get the guy out of his life once and for all.
Allen is yet to speak publicly about the catfishing, but his lawyer spoke with TMZ Sports and explained the situation.
"Ray Allen was the victim of an online scheme to extract money and embarrass him by someone who appears to be troubled," the lawyer said. "The person who perpetrated this scheme has now started to stalk him and make threats against Ray and his family. Ray has taken legal action to put an end to the threats and to expose his manipulation and wrongdoing. Ray regrets ever engaging with this person online and is thankful they never met in person. This experience has negatively impacted Ray, and he hopes that others might use his mistake to learn the dangers of communicating online with strangers."
Allen should have read this when we published it almost five (!) years ago. Learn from his mistakes.
