These Celebrities Have Been Impersonated Online to Scam People
If you’ve ever seen a video of a major celebrity asking for money in a suspiciously robotic voice, you likely were looking at a celebrity impersonation scam.
Security software company McAfee recently released its annual list of the most frequently hacked celebrities, or those whose identities were used most often in online scams. Scarlett Johansson topped the list, although big names like Kylie Jenner, Taylor Swift and Tom Hanks were close behind. Scammers pretended to be them and asked people to shell out money for a range of items, including “fake giveaways, tickets to high-demand concerts or disinformation campaigns,” according to McAfee.
In examples cited by McAfee, Hanks was hawking “miracle cures,” Swift was endorsing political candidates and Kylie Jenner was urging her fans to participate in cryptocurrency giveaways. For fans, these scams can have real financial consequences. According to McAfee, this ranges from the loss of hundreds of dollars to more than half a million. Scarlett Johansson even threatened to file a lawsuit against OpenAI for allegedly imitating her voice on their system.
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What Does a Celebrity Impersonator Scam Look Like?
It, in fact, looks like the celebrity.
In all seriousness, these types of fraud are becoming a major problem. By 2027, fraud losses from generative AI could reach $40 billion, per Deloitte’s Center for Financial Services. That’s a sharp increase from the calculated amount in 2023 of $12.3 billion.
So how do you keep yourself safe against a celebrity impersonation scam? And what are some of the offending examples? We’ve got you covered.
Johnny Depp
In January, actor Johnny Depp became the target of a celebrity impersonation scam. He sent a message to fans warning them that online scammers had been “intensifying their efforts to target my fans and supporters.”
“Today, AI can create the illusion of my face and voice,” Depp wrote in an Instagram post on Jan. 6. “Scammers may look and sound just like the real me. But neither I nor my team will ask you for money or your personal information.”
He also linked to his official accounts on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok, noting that he was not on X, Snapchat and Discord.
Reba McEntire
Depp is far from the only celebrity to have given his fans a glaring warning. In November, country singer Reba McEntire posted on Instagram with a similar message. “I and my team will never correspond with you from a direct message or cell phone number asking you for money in order to meet me,” she wrote. She urged fans not to give out personal information, purchase gift cards or send money electronically to strangers.
Brad Pitt
Another recent celebrity impersonation scam: Brad Pitt. A 53-year-old woman in France saw AI-generated photos of Pitt and ended up spending $850,000, thinking those funds were going to help a cancer-ridden Pitt and even divorcing her husband in the process.
In the wake of the news, Pitt issued a statement, noting it was “awful” that “scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, but this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”
Elon Musk
Elon Musk’s image was used to offer fake investment opportunities in AI videos that convinced at least one 62-year-old health care worker, according to reporting from CBS News.
“Don’t miss this incredible opportunity to change your life and help others in the process,” the faux-Musk says in one video.
The co-founder of deepfake (an internet term for very convincing AI-generated photos of videos) monitoring company Sensity told the New York Times that videos of Musk were “probably the biggest deepfake-driven scam ever.” An 82-year-old retiree was so convinced, he told the Times, that he invested more than $690,000 in what later turned out to be a scam.
David Attenborough
British presenter and biologist David Attenborough had his voice used in a seemingly pro-Donald Trump newscast. While this example of voice cloning is slightly different than an AI deep-fake, as it doesn’t involve Attenborough’s likeness, the host still noted to The Guardian that he was “profoundly disturbed.”
How to Spot Fake, AI-generated Content
If you’re concerned about being tricked by a celebrity impersonation scam, we have some advice for you.
1. Use reverse image search
The European Broadcasting Union notes that reverse image search — conducted by saving the photo and searching it through Google — is one helpful way to see if the video or photo of the celebrity has been taken from another context.
2. Check the webpage
If a celebrity directs you to go to another website as part of their video or post, check if that site seems like a reliable source, actually works or has a real URL. If you come upon a website that doesn’t really exist, you’ve hit the jackpot — you’ve likely stumbled upon a scam.
3. Background distortion
This is a tip for actually discerning whether the imagery itself is AI-generated, straight from Microsoft. Look at the image’s background. If the actual image of the person seems accurate but the background is blurred or doesn’t fit with the context, this is a good sign that the video was taken out of its original format.
4. Look at different social media sites
As Depp noted in his post, he doesn’t actually have accounts on certain social media platforms, like X and Discord. If your so-called favorite celebrity is all of a sudden claiming to have a completely different social media handle or post on a platform they were once never on, click through a few options to see if they have another official account. If they do, the one you got is likely a fake.
5. Search celebrity scams
Does something just feel off? Does it surprise you that Jennifer Aniston would be trying to sell you a miracle pill? Do you think Elon Musk’s investment opportunity seems too good to be true? Check around the Internet to see if these scams have already been written about. Plenty of celebrities have publicized scams in their own names.
6. The audio and mouth don’t match
This is one of the most clear signs of a deepfake. Perhaps Taylor Swift looks, for the most part, like herself in a video. But her mouth is moving in a strange, almost automaton-like fashion. That could be a clear sign the content is AI-generated.
7. Under no circumstances should you give out your personal information
This is a good rule of thumb regardless of the context. But as many of the celebrities have noted in their social media warning posts, don’t give out your information to a source you don’t know. Whether it’s your bank account, credit card, Social Security Number or any personal identifying information, if the source does not seem legitimate or is unknown to you, the best course of action is to not sharing anything.
