Captain Lee Rosbach, star of Below Deck, was not happy when he discovered someone impersonating him. The imposter posted an anniversary tribute and a fraudulent email commemorating his late son’s death. It’s unclear if the unknown person or persons who created the email address wanted to capitalize on the captain’s name for financial gain or some other unknown personal benefit.
The gruff captain of the Below Deck crew lost his son Joshua to an accidental drug overdose in July 2019. Rossbach has been open about the grief he still feels regarding the passing of his child, and recently stated that he doesn't even know how he's feeling about the death. Although Rosbach claimed that he might get better at coping with the grief as time goes on, he will always have a hole in his heart where his son should be. The death occurred after a nearly 20-year battle with drug addiction that eventually claimed Joshua's life.
According to Reality Tea, Rosbach posted a picture of his son to his Instagram account about a week ago in recognition of the one-year anniversary of Joshua’s death. He later took to the same Instagram account and claimed that since posting the photo someone capitalized on the moment and tried to exploit Rosbach's pain for their own gain. He wrote on his Instagram account, "This is a photo of my son Josh. I posted a tribute to him from my bride, his Mom and I. Since this posting some demented piece of sh*t [has] decide to exploit this for whatever reasons and I want to make sure you all know this did not come from me.” According to Rosbach, the imposter posted a tribute to Joshua alongside a fake email address. It's unclear if he asked for money or some other kind of support, but his actions severely affected Captain Lee. In the captain’s Instagram post, he also said he is taking the appropriate actions to track down this bad actor or actors and remedy the situation. Captain Rosbach lambasted the perpetrator, clearly upset that he would use such a difficult moment for personal gain. Take a look at Captain Lee's original tribute post below:
This latest round of Rosbach impersonations comes on the heels of an earlier attempt last month to assume his identity. In that scenario, scammers attempted to use the captain’s likeness to recruit candidates for cruise ship positions, in which applicants pay to apply. This scam is attractive to hopefuls looking to work in the yachting industry with one of the original Below Deck stars. In that scenario, the imposter pretended to be the captain, who is now doing job recruitment work for the Princess Cruise line. To increase the credibility of the scam, a Bravo TV promotional photo of Captain Rosbach was used to create a fraudulent passport that was used as proof that the captain is actively searching for job candidates. Candidate hopefuls were asked to send in an application fee of 15,000 rupees, the Indian currency, which is approximately $200 in U.S. dollars. The captain found out about the scam after applicants emailed his actual web site asking for confirmation that he is recruiting people. This same scam also was used in job recruitment ads on Facebook.
As to the most recent attempt to exploit the Rosbachs using the untimely death of their son, the captain re-emphasized the fakery did not come from him. He also stressed the importance of looking at the blue checkmark as verification of his true identity, rather than believing everyone who posted online using his name.
Source: Reality Tea, Captain Lee Rosbach