Celebrity Impostors Defraud Fans of Millions

Singers Blake Shelton and Dolly Parton are among the many stars impersonated

Katherine Skiba and Christina Ianzito,

AARP

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En español

Published August 23, 2021

/ Updated July 23, 2024

Mickey Bernal/NBC via Getty Images / Sam Hodde/Getty Images for ABA

In this story

Cost of scams • How scams work • Common scams • Red flags • Protect yourself • Report scams • More resources

Country superstar Blake Shelton is so ruggedly handsome that People magazine once proclaimed him the “Sexiest Man Alive.” When J.R., a woman in her 60s in Alabama, heard she could enter a $1 million contest to be chosen the Grammy-winning singer’s fan of the year a few years ago, she decided to enter. To do so, she was told she needed to make three payments totaling $17,500 through wire transfers, which she did. But it was all a scam.

It was not Shelton’s manager who was communicating with J.R. There was no $1 million contest. Shelton, who’s known across musical genres after more than 20 seasons as a coach on NBC’s The Voice, is among a cavalcade of performers who have publicly condemned the criminals who highjack their names for profit.

Victims’ losses can be significant. Impostor scams, which include fraudsters posing as celebrities, but more commonly as government agencies, banks or a friend or family member, were the No. 1 fraud complaint to the Federal Trade Commission in 2023, with 853,935 reports. Total losses were nearly $2.7 billion; the median loss was $800.

How celebrity impostor scams work

Criminals who pose as celebrities follow a playbook, says Anthony Pratkanis, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of California in Santa Cruz. They nurture a relationship with their target before the “ask.”

In private messages, the con profiles the target to determine the best approach. If a target is lonely, it’s a romance scam; if altruistic, it’s a charity scam.

The criminals invent excuses about why they (wealthy celebrities) supposedly can’t access their funds, Pratkanis says.

Recent calls to AARP’s Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360) reporting celebrity impostor scams include one from a woman who reported receiving a Facebook message from a Brazilian singer, who began a long correspondence with her.

The woman eventually decided to leave her husband for him. She’d given him their life savings — $300,000 — before learning he was a fraud.

Common celebrity impostor scams

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI) make these scams harder to identity, as they offer criminals the tools they need to mimic voices, alter photos and avoid the spelling and grammar mistakes that once were red flags for fraud.

“It’s opening a new era of potential threats,” said Eyal Benishti, founder and CEO of Ironscales, a company that helps organizations protect against social engineering and email phishing scams, in a 2023 interview with AARP about AI and fraud.

Here are just a few ways scammers use AI in celebrity impostor scams.

Have conversations. To create a voice that sounds like a celebrity, scammers only need three seconds of audio. Just as in a grandparent scam, where you think you are getting a call for help from your grandchild, AI can simulate celebrity voices so effectively that a woman in Texas thought she was receiving voice messages from a famous musician. She sent him thousands of dollars to arrange a private meet and greet.

Post bogus ads. Criminals pretend to be celebrities who are endorsing products. In the past few years Dolly Parton, Taylor Swift and Jennifer Aniston have been among the famous people who’ve been impersonated hawking CBD, keto gummies, weight loss cures or Apple MacBook “giveaways for just $10” as the ad promised.

In reality they had no connection with the things advertised. In 2023, Parton’s publicity team posted a note on Instagram saying as much: “Dolly Parton is not affiliated with, has not endorsed and is not associated with any keto or CBD gummy product. She’s more the cake, cookie and cornbread type. — Team Dolly.”

Create deepfake celebrity videos. AI has allowed criminals to create deepfake videos using celebrities’ images for these fake endorsements.

Upload phony livestreams. The impostor account features a video along with a message promising, for example, a cash prize to the first 500 people who comment with a specified phrase. Respondents get a direct message asking for a bank account number or other personal data to facilitate a supposed payment.

How to identify celebrity scams

If you are asked for money for any of the following, it should be a red flag.

Donations to charity (sometimes for a cause associated with the actual celebrity)
Exclusive tickets to private concerts or meet and greets
A surefire investment, often a cryptocurrency deal purporting to come from a famous business mogul
Processing fees for a big prize giveaway or sweepstakes

How to protect yourself

Think before you post. Because any comments on a celebrity’s social media account are public, a bad actor can reach out to fans who have posted and pretend to be the actual celebrity.

Be skeptical. Keep in mind that a genuine VIP won’t send you a private message to solicit funds. “Enjoy your celebrity crushes — we all have them. Just be careful when any ‘celebrity’ says they need your help," says Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network.

Check out their charity. If a celebrity asks you to donate, do research first. It should be a tax-exempt 501(c)3 organization, says Nofziger. Avoid charity scams by vetting nonprofits on a site such as the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance, Charity Navigator or CharityWatch. If you give, give directly to the charity through the legitimate site, not a link given to you.

Slow down. Before you send money, talk with someone you trust.

Never send cash, gift cards, wire transfers, cryptocurrency or other hard-to-trace forms of payment to someone you don’t genuinely know or haven’t met.

Keep your personal information private. Never share bank details or other financial information.

What to do if you’ve been targeted

Contact your bank to let them know about the incident and ask if they are able to stop payment on any money sent to scammers. Report celebrity scams to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). Report online celebrity impostors to the relevant social media network. Facebook, X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram have procedures to eliminate bogus accounts.

For support and guidance, the trained fraud specialists at the free AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline, 877 -908-3360, can share information on what to do next and how to avoid future scams. The AARP Fraud Watch Network also offers online group support sessions.

More resources

AARP's The Perfect Scam podcast has a two-episode report about how National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen struggles to fight back against the relentless scammers who impersonate him and target his followers.

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Katherine Skiba covers scams and fraud for AARP. Previously she was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was a recipient of Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship and is the author of the book Sister in the Band of Brothers: Embedded With the 101st Airborne in Iraq.

Christina Ianzito is a Washington, D.C.-based journalist who joined AARP in 2010. She’s the travel and books editor for aarp.org and AARP The Magazine, and also edits and writes health, entertainment and other stories for aarp.org. She received a 2020 Lowell Thomas Award for travel writing.