Celebrity romance scams: how fake stars work, and how to check

A famous actor likes your comment, then sends you a private message. It feels flattering. AARP's advice is plain: "a genuine VIP won't send you a private message to solicit funds (or, realistically, to be your friend)."

Short answer: A celebrity romance scam is an impostor scam. Someone posing as a famous person, or as the star's manager, messages a fan, builds a friendship or romance, and then asks for money for a fan card, a meet-and-greet, a charity or a legal problem. Johnny Depp has said that neither he nor his team will ask fans for money. If you've been asked, stop paying, keep the messages, report the account to the platform, and report the loss at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov.

Real public figure or impersonator: a quick check

What a celebrity romance scam is

The FTC described the pattern in an August 2018 alert: scammers are "posing as celebrities on social media" and "asking fans to send money for all kinds of supposed reasons." It counts them as impostor scams, where someone pretends to be a person you trust so you'll send money.

AARP says the scammer "sees a fan's post on a celebrity's social media feed, then reaches out pretending to be either the celebrity or their manager." If there's a romantic angle, the scammer moves fast to lavish compliments and affection, which is love bombing. Meta sees a second version in ads and calls it "celeb bait".

How it unfolds, step by step

1. First contact. A comment on a star's page, a fan group or even a word game. In a 2022 case, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Utah said victims were "apparently targeted through social media sites, dating sites, and online games such as word searches or word puzzle games."
2. The "manager". "Here's the beginning," a 66-year-old woman in Montana told the FBI Salt Lake City office (June 2025), referencing a screenshot of their messages on her cell phone. She read: "You know sometimes my management gets to handle all my pages and that's actually their job and what they do ..."
3. A private channel. AARP names WhatsApp. The Hollywood Reporter's reporter, who tested the scam with a fake profile, was moved to Telegram.
4. Secrecy. In that test, the fake star wrote: "You need to keep our conversations away from your families [sic]. Let it be just you and I."
5. The money asks. In the Florida case below, Fox 13 reported that the conversations went on for two and a half years, and then came repeated requests for money.
6. The second round. Fake agents arrive. Victims in a 2025 Tennessee case were told the scammers were federal law enforcement and had to pay "fees and fines to halt investigations initiated by the celebrities or their management," according to the DOJ. The DOJ calls this part a law enforcement scam: the conspirators posed as high-ranking officials of the FBI and the Justice Department.

The scammers don't need to fool everybody. An elder-fraud researcher at the University of Minnesota told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2025: "You cast your net broadly, see who falls into it, work really hard to build trust and hope that you can move from them just responding to them being willing to give you money."

Instagram's own scam page lists "People who you don't know or famous people asking for money" among its warning signs. For the general list, see signs of a romance scammer.

The money asks

• Fan cards and memberships. The Hollywood Reporter's fake Keanu Reeves pushed "a $600 fan club membership card" (July 2025).
• Meet-and-greets. In the Montana case, the asks were "for events like a meet and greet."
• A star whose money is stuck. The 2022 Utah release names help for "the celebrity while funds were tied up in a divorce."
• Taxes and fees. The Tennessee release (December 2025) names "the need for help with taxes on luxury vehicles" and "membership fees that would permit unique access to the celebrities".
• Contests. AARP describes a woman in her 60s in Alabama who, a few years ago, wired three payments totaling $17,500 to enter a $1 million "fan of the year" contest.

How the money moved differs by case. The Alabama woman paid through wire transfers, AARP says. The retired teacher in the Tennessee case sent checks, according to the DOJ. "It was always through Bitcoin," the Montana woman said, and the fake Keanu Reeves in the Florida case wanted "tens of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin and cryptocurrency," Fox 13 reported. For how crypto and gift card payments work, see crypto romance scams and why scammers want gift cards.

Public cases, with dates

• Utah, 2022. The DOJ said a romance and money-laundering scheme had "more than 350 victims, many of them elderly," and a judge ordered $8.4 million in restitution (May 2022).
• Montana, 2025. The woman told the FBI Salt Lake City office she lost $90,000 over several months to someone posing as a celebrity (June 2025).
• Florida, 2025. A woman told Fox 13 Tampa Bay (April 2025) that a fake Keanu Reeves first messaged her in the game Words With Friends. She estimates her total losses at more than $160,000. Sheriff's deputies later told her the scammers were funneling other victims' money through her financial accounts. Our guide to money mule scams explains how scammers move money through other people's accounts.
• Tennessee, 2025. Three people were sentenced in December 2025 for a scheme that "used the identities of at least four celebrities," according to the DOJ. One victim, a retired teacher, sent five checks totaling $86,900, his life savings, and later took his own life. If you or someone close to you is struggling after a scam, you can call or text the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any hour.
• France, 2025. Outside the US, a French woman sent almost all of her divorce settlement, around €775,000, to someone posing as Brad Pitt, Global News reported in January 2025.

The AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline says it has received many reports of scammers impersonating Kevin Costner, Trace Adkins, Sandra Bullock, The Rock, Reese Witherspoon, Reba McEntire and Tom Brady.

How much do people lose?

There is no celebrity-only figure. Neither the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) nor the FTC publishes one.

When The Hollywood Reporter covered celebrity scams in July 2025, the number it quoted was IC3's 2024 total for its whole Confidence/Romance category ($672,009,052 in reported losses), which covers every relationship scam, including the family and friendly kinds. In IC3's 2025 Internet Crime Report, published in April 2026, people filed 23,159 such complaints and reported about $929 million in losses. In the same category, people aged 50-59 reported $131,385,454 in losses in 2025. In its investment-scam section, the report warns that "Investment clubs employ AI-generated videos and voices of celebrities, CEOs, or trusted figures to create fraudulent, high-stakes opportunities."

How to check whether it's really them

Find the official account yourself. Go to the star's own official website and follow its link to their social accounts, never a link sent in a message. Compare the username letter by letter. Instagram says it asks some accounts using a celebrity's name to choose a label, such as a fan account.

Read the badge for what it is. Instagram says its badge means an account was checked "based on their activity across our products and information or documents they provide," and a paid Meta subscription also comes with it. On Facebook, a badge can mean a free option "to show there's a real person behind their profile." So a badge doesn't mean the person is famous, and Instagram says not every public figure has one. An Instagram or Facebook badge tells you nothing about who is messaging you on WhatsApp or Telegram.

Use reverse image search on "personal" photos. A star's public photos lead back to the star, so a match proves little. Search the photos meant to be private: an ID, a crash, a hospital bed. In one case The Hollywood Reporter described, a reverse image search showed the "crash" photo "was posted all over the internet." Our guide to reverse image search for a dating profile walks through the steps.

Don't treat video or voice as proof. An IC3 warning from December 2024 says criminals use AI-generated video "to create believable depictions of public figures." In the Florida case, a video chat convinced the woman it was him. Depp's own warning, quoted by Fox News in January 2025: "Scammers may look and sound just like the real me."

Platform tools: what they do

• Instagram. Open the profile, tap the options next to the username, then Report and Report Account, then "It's pretending to be someone else," and choose a celebrity or public figure.
• Facebook. Facebook asks you to report profiles or Pages pretending to be "a public figure (example: celebrity, politician)." Facebook says you can report "even if you don't have a Facebook account."
• TikTok. On the profile, tap Share, then Report, Report account, "Pretending to Be Someone" and Celebrity.
• WhatsApp. Block and report the sender. WhatsApp says it "receives up to five of the last messages they've sent to you," and suggests taking screenshots first.

Meta says it uses facial recognition to spot "celeb bait" scam ads that use a public figure's face, and in September 2025 said nearly 500,000 public figures were protected from having their likeness misused in those scams. Public figures are enrolled in that ad protection or opt in to it. Meta also compares the profile pictures of flagged impostor accounts with the public figure's own, and named the EU, the UK and South Korea for that impostor-account check.

If it's a parent or someone you love

In an AARP survey released in February 2026, 55% of adults 50 and older who lost money to a romance scam said they never reported it, and shame was a main reason.

Arguing with the story often pushes people away. The Hollywood Reporter describes a sister who kept saying it wasn't the real star, and the two drifted apart. A peer-support director quoted by AARP (2023) suggests a softer start: "Gain trust and learn more by asking open-ended questions and listening". If you're not the right person for that talk, AARP's advice is to "Call for backup," such as "a favored relative or trusted adviser, like a church leader, a financial professional or the victim's physician."

Offer practical help: sit with them to call the bank and file the reports. The AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360) gives free guidance, and the DOJ's National Elder Fraud Hotline (833-372-8311) is a free resource for reporting fraud against anyone 60 or older; see how to report a romance scammer for their hours.

If they plan to travel to meet the "star", the FBI Salt Lake City office's advice for meeting anyone met online is to use caution and not travel alone.

What to do, and where to report in the US

1. Stop paying. No more fees, cards or crypto, whatever the next story is.
2. Keep the messages. Screenshot the chats, usernames, phone numbers, wallet addresses and receipts before you block anyone.
3. Report the account with the platform tools above, on every app where the "star" contacted you.
4. Call the bank, card company or gift card issuer. The FTC's 2018 alert says to contact the company you used to send the money: "Tell them the transaction was a fraud."
5. Report the loss at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and ic3.gov. The FBI Salt Lake City office also suggests calling your local FBI field office.
6. Expect a second scam. Anyone who contacts you offering to get the money back, or a "federal agent" demanding fines, is part of the same playbook. The Hollywood Reporter found that once one scam works, "your information is shared with other scammers."

If you are in danger, call 911.

A next step before you trust a new contact

If the "star" or their "manager" gave you a phone number or an email, TrulyWho can show the public profiles and usernames tied to it, and who a US or Canadian number belongs to, in about a minute. It can't confirm that you're talking to a celebrity, and its results come from public and licensed data sources that may be incomplete or wrong.

FAQ

How can you spot a fake celebrity account?

Open the star's account from their official website, never from a link in a message, and compare the username. Warning signs include extra numbers in the name, a fan account label, a "manager" who does the talking, a push to move to WhatsApp or Telegram, secrecy, and any request for money, gift cards, crypto or a fan card.

Do celebrities message fans on Instagram or Facebook?

Don't expect one to. AARP says a genuine VIP won't send you a private message to ask for funds, or, realistically, to be your friend. Johnny Depp said in January 2025 that neither he nor his team will ask fans for money or personal information.

Can a deepfake video call fool me?

Yes. IC3 warned in December 2024 that criminals use AI-generated video and audio of public figures, and in May 2025 that AI-generated content is often difficult to identify. A short clip or a voice note proves nothing. Even a live call isn't proof, so judge the request. AARP's rule holds: a genuine VIP won't send you a private message to ask for funds.

What is a fan card or VIP fee?

It is a payment the impostor says buys a membership, a meeting or special access to the star. The Hollywood Reporter's fake Keanu Reeves asked for $600 for a fan club card in 2025. Johnny Depp has said he doesn't offer paid meetings, calls, club memberships or fan cards.

How much do people lose to celebrity romance scams?

Neither IC3 nor the FTC publishes a celebrity-only US figure. IC3's 2025 Internet Crime Report counts 23,159 complaints and about $929 million in losses for its whole Confidence/Romance category, which covers every relationship scam. Single losses in public US celebrity cases include $17,500 an Alabama woman wired a few years ago (AARP), $90,000 a Montana woman told the FBI she lost (June 2025), and more than $160,000 by a Florida woman's own estimate (Fox 13 Tampa Bay, April 2025).

Can I get my money back after a celebrity scam?

Act fast, and don't count on it. Call your bank, card company or gift card issuer right away and say the payment was a fraud, then report it at ic3.gov and ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Never pay anyone who contacts you offering to recover the money, because that is a second scam.