A Louisiana woman has lost more than $10,000 after a scammer used artificial intelligence to pose as rock star Jon Bon Jovi in a months-long online romance scam.
Leslie Pickett, a fan of the singer since she was 14, began talking with the impostor in late 2024 after commenting on an unverified Instagram account claiming to be Bon Jovi, reports Fox News.
Moments later, Pickett says she received a response from an account that appears to belong to the rockstar himself.
“He gave very thoughtful answers to my questions, so I genuinely thought it was him. And I wasn’t too knowledgeable about those check marks. I had doubts, but hey, a girl can dream.”
The messages came several times a day and night and included AI-made videos that responded directly to her requests, such as specific facial gestures, along with a live video call.
The impersonator claimed the musician and his wife had quietly filed for divorce but were keeping it secret to protect his image.
After seven months, the requests for money began, presented as payments to the star’s management for a meet-and-greet and routed through cryptocurrency and apps like Venmo, PayPal and Cash App.
The small payments grew into larger ones until she had lost more than $10,000 and had fallen so far into debt that her home faced foreclosure.
Says Pickett,
“My heart was shattered. I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there was nothing but ill intent. That’s what hurt the most.”
Her case is featured in the National Geographic documentary “Super Scam Me,” in which journalist Mariana van Zeller and a former hacker traced the scammer’s internet address to Lagos, Nigeria.
Van Zeller calls romance scams the fastest-growing form of financial crime and says AI videos sent by fake celebrities now look far more convincing than the deepfakes of the past.
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