It seems as though the world has learned nothing from the 2012 hit American TV series, Catfish with more people getting scammed daily. For years, scammers have used various ploys to get all that they want from unsuspecting older victims, but now even the younger generations have been put on the target list. One of the most recent victims is an obsessed Stranger Things fan who was swindled out of $10,000 and forced to divorce her husband by a scammer impersonating Dacre Montgomery.

With many scammers finding a sweet spot between celebrity impersonation, catfishing, and manipulation like the Tinder Swindler himself, it would be smart to proceed with caution if your favorite celebrities happen to slide into your DMs. Here are seven celebrities that were impersonated to dupe their fans out of millions over the years.

7 Fake celebrities scams that duped millions

1) Paul Hollywood

At the peak of the pandemic in 2020, Great British Bake Off star Paul Hollywood issued a warning to his fans on social media after accounts pretending to be him started showing up online.

He was only notified after a few of his fans had already been duped. That is not all. The fake accounts were promising fans explicit pictures of the star for a price.

While upsetting, this was not the first time that the star’s pictures were being used by other people.

2) Olly Murs

Dazed by the man behind the melodious voice of the chart-topping song ‘Troublemaker,’ fans lost more than £ 200k to an Olly Murs impersonator. The scammer targeted fans in not one, but two countries. And just in case the star-dazed fans had the brains to ask him for ID proof, he kept a fake driver’s license of the singer. The scammer could not be caught even after a police report, leaving the victims with a hole in not just their pockets but also hearts.

3) Katy Perry

This one definitely lasted the longest. Back in 2016, a guy named Spencer went on the MTV show Catfish to find out whether his relationship with the ‘Firework’ singer was real or if he was being scammed.

He believed that for six years; he was dating the iconic pop star, Katy Perry, despite the fact that she was already married to Russell Brand at the time.

4) Nicolas Cage

A scam that took the Internet by storm is the one that has Nicolas Cage at the helm of the affair. It is your usual, girl-meets-boy online, they fall in love, and boom, the guy is a scammer. After months of chatting with a fake account of the actor, a UK-based woman very strongly believed that she was dating the National Treasure actor, who wanted their relationship to be kept on the down low.

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The lies do not end there because the victim was lured into giving him £10,000 under the guise of helping him out with his taxes.

5) Jason Statham

Jason Statham is no stranger to online catfish scams, having been the targeted celebrity of the 2019 scams. The Transporter actor is another one of those celebrities, who ended up being impersonated by a scam artist who made good money out of his unsuspecting fans. A British woman was taken advantage of by an online scammer during her most vulnerable time as she was mourning the loss of her mother and fiance.

The victim came forward after she ended up losing an undisclosed amount of money, but asked that her name be hidden from the public instead.

6) Bruce Springsteen

Way back in 2018, a fan of the ‘Born in the USA’ singer believed that she was talking to Bruce Springsteen on social media after she had left a comment on a post about the singer on a Facebook page.

It seemed as though the con artist had done his research about the artist, ensuring all the questions that may come his way would be answered correctly. But unfortunately, it was just another scammer that swindled the love-struck fan out of $11,500. From iTunes payments to shipping fees, she took care of whatever the con artist wanted.

7) Gordon Ramsey

With the amount of times Gordon Ramsay has been impersonated by scammers, he might just be their favorite dist. Back in 2021, a woman came forward saying that she had been ripped off by a scammer. The scammer who met the woman on a Facebook group ended up stealing $1000 from her before she finally realised it was a scam.

With scammers getting smarter and AI making it harder to determine what is real online and what is not, now is the time to learn how to be wary of the people you meet online and ensure you do not have a catfish of your own.

Do you think you could fall for one of these scams? Let us know what you think in the comments!