{"id":893560,"date":"2026-10-24T23:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893560\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T23:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T23:58:09","slug":"jon-bon-jovi-impersonator-uses-ai-videos-to-scam-woman-out-of-10k-nearly-costing-her-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/893560\/","title":{"rendered":"Jon Bon Jovi impersonator uses AI videos to scam woman out of $10K, nearly costing her home"},"content":{"rendered":"

She gave love a chance. A scammer gave it a bad name.<\/p>\n

For months, Leslie Pickett thought she was talking to Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star she had adored since she was 14. <\/p>\n

The man behind the screen messaged her day and night, sent convincing videos and eventually persuaded her to hand over thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n

By the time the deception unraveled, she had lost more than $10,000 and came close to losing her home.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy heart was shattered,\u201d the Louisiana resident told Fox News Digital. \u201cI was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there was nothing but ill intent. That\u2019s what hurt the most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pickett\u2019s story is featured in the National Geographic documentary special<\/a> \u201cSuper Scam Me,\u201d in which Emmy Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller goes undercover to investigate online scams, traveling to Africa to confront a suspected scammer face-to-face.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re living in the era of scams,\u201d van Zeller told Fox News Digital. \u201cRomance scams, in particular, are the fastest growing, and I believe, most devastating form of financial crime out there. One in seven Americans have reported losing money to romance scams. And so, I think now is the best time to raise awareness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fox News Digital reached out to Bon Jovi\u2019s<\/a> spokesperson for comment.<\/p>\n

Pickett, who was \u201cmore of a Facebook person,\u201d was introduced to Instagram by her daughter. <\/p>\n

Leslie Pickett thought she was talking to Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star she had adored since she was 14.<\/p>\n

She came across Bon Jovi\u2019s verified account in late 2024 and commented on one of his posts. Five minutes later, she received a response from an account that appeared to belong to Bon Jovi himself. However, the account wasn\u2019t verified.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave very thoughtful answers to my questions, so I genuinely thought it was him,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cAnd I wasn\u2019t too knowledgeable about those check marks. I had doubts, but hey, a girl can dream.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Pickett, the impostor told her Bon Jovi wanted to connect with his fans more personally. He also warned that if Bon Jovi\u2019s management discovered the secret account, it would be shut down.<\/p>\n

For months, the two exchanged messages \u201cseveral times a day and several times at night,\u201d bonding over music and common interests. According to Pickett, the impostor remembered details from their earliest conversations, told her \u201cI love you\u201d and even sent a bouquet of flowers to her home. He also sent recorded videos, and the two eventually connected on a live video call.<\/p>\n

Pickett, who had no idea he was generative AI <\/a>to play the rock star, was convinced she was talking to Bon Jovi. The scammer also claimed that he and his wife had quietly filed for divorce but were keeping it under wraps to protect his public image.<\/p>\n

Jon Bon Jovi performs onstage during Bon Jovi\u2019s Forever Tour at Madison Square Garden in New York on Tuesday, July 21, 2026. Kevin Mazur\/Getty Images for Bon Jovi<\/p>\n

Pickett showed the photos and videos to her cousin, who was skeptical that Bon Jovi would be in a secret relationship with a fan. But after seeing the images, he reportedly exclaimed, \u201cThat\u2019s him! There\u2019s no doubt about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like talking to my best friend,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cHe said he wanted to meet someone normal. He didn\u2019t want somebody that wanted fame, money and things like that. So, we didn\u2019t really talk about stuff like that. We talked about everyday life. I had my doubts, but I was praying it was him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Months later, the man posing as Bon Jovi started asking for money.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tStart your day with all you need to know\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMorning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cHe had an exclusive performance in Nashville<\/a>, where he only let a thousand people buy tickets,\u201d Pickett recalled. \u201cThe show was legitimate. Unfortunately, I tried to buy tickets, but they sold out in four minutes. When I told him about it, he suggested a meet and greet. He had never asked me for money before. He said, \u2018To get you in the meet and greet, you\u2019re going to have go through management since there are no tickets left.\u2019 He gave me emails to his management, and he walked me through how to do everything. I\u2019ve never even heard of the word \u2018crypto.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a red flag, but the money was given with intent,\u201d Pickett continued. \u201cI was supposed to get something in return. Meet and greets are also a common thing with famous people so I didn\u2019t see it as scammy at all. The bitcoin and crypto were the only things that made me go, \u2018Why am I not logging into a regular site?\u2019 He said, \u2018Those get hacked all the time. This is the safest way to do it.\u2019 He put me at ease.\u201d<\/p>\n

The requests for money started small but added up over time. Pickett sent $100 or $150 at a time, only to be told the payments hadn\u2019t gone through. The impostor then instructed her to send larger amounts through different payment methods, including Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and cryptocurrency. When one method supposedly failed, she would try another, sometimes staying up at night trying to figure out how to send the money.<\/p>\n

Mariana van Zeller poses behind-the-scenes with Daniel, Jeff and Kwesi in Accra, Ghana, Friday, July 17, 2026. National Geographic\/Daniel Hollis Diamond<\/p>\n

\u201cNothing felt abnormal until I realized the money wasn\u2019t coming back into my account,\u201d Pickett said.<\/p>\n

Van Zeller described the scammer\u2019s interactions with Pickett as a \u201cslow burn.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt first approach, it started as a normal conversation,\u201d van Zeller explained. \u201cPeople think he approached her and said, \u2018Hi, I\u2019m Jon Bon Jovi. I\u2019m madly in love with you. Send me money.\u2019 That\u2019s not the case. It took him seven months before he asked Leslie for money. Many people think, \u2018How can you give money to a stranger?\u2019 But for Leslie, and many other victims, this was at a point when he wasn\u2019t a stranger. With some victims, they speak to scammers for months, even years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advances in artificial intelligence <\/a>made the deception even harder to detect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the chance of watching some of the videos that the fake Jon Bon Jovi sent Leslie,\u201d van Zeller said. \u201cAt one point during this experiment, I was dating three George Clooneys, several Brad Pitts and a few Keanu Reeves. A few sent me videos that were very bad, but some were very good. I received one video from a fake George Clooney that you can watch in the documentary that looked very real. These weren\u2019t the old deep fake videos of the past that are full of distortions. These looked professional, believable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Journalist Mariana van Zeller investigated the scheme for her documentary special and traced the scammer\u2019s IP address to Lagos, Nigeria. National Geographic<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the videos, he would say my name,\u201d Pickett recalled. \u201cHe would send me videos all the time. One time, I told him, \u2018Pull on your right ear, cross your eyes and stick your tongue out.\u2019 He would send me that within five minutes. That\u2019s how good AI is.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July 2025, the scammer told Pickett he was flying to Louisiana for a meet and greet. He sent her photos of himself seated at a table in a hotel she recognized. The light fixtures, furniture, carpet, utensils and even the napkin rings all matched.<\/p>\n

According to Pickett, the scammer told her they needed to complete a security clearance check through Google Chat before they could finally meet in person. When Pickett tried to join the video call, he abruptly hung up. He texted her afterward, claiming there was a security breach because his management believed she was trying to record the call.<\/p>\n

The impostor then told Pickett that if she was willing to pay more money to his management, they could arrange another security check, and he would even remain in town for a while. This time, he requested a much larger amount of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, I thought, \u2018Oh my God, this is just not real,’\u201d Pickett said. \u201cThat\u2019s when my heart sank because I knew I had been duped. That\u2019s when I decided to reach out to Mariana for help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even after realizing she had been deceived, Pickett wondered whether the man she had been talking to for months was someone living in the United States who genuinely cared about her \u2014 someone who wasn\u2019t interested only in money but wanted a meaningful relationship.<\/p>\n

From left, Vivian Campbell, Joe Elliott, Rick Savage, Jon Bon Jovi, Rick Allen and Phil Collen attend a ceremony honoring Def Leppard with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025, in Hollywood, Calif. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Van Zeller and Pickett teamed up with a former hacker who helped them trace the scammer\u2019s internet protocol (IP) address. The hacker set a trap designed to lure the impostor into claiming more Bitcoin. The IP address led them to Lagos, Nigeria. They then used Google Earth to identify what they believed was the house from which the scammer had been messaging Pickett.<\/p>\n

By then, Pickett said she had lost \u201cover $10,000\u201d to the scam. She had fallen so deeply into debt that her home was facing foreclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was devastated,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cBy then I was starting to suspect he was fake. But when Mariana got confirmation, it rocked my world. He could have just come clean, but he just took advantage of my kindness. That\u2019s what crushed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, Pickett is still rebuilding her finances while working a full-time job. She said the emotional toll has been even harder to overcome, leaving her struggling to trust others. She has also become an advocate for scam victims, using social media to warn others about the dangers of interacting with unverified accounts.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy ultimate goal today is to slow it down and eventually stop this industry,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cIt devastated my family. It devastated me. It put me in financial dire straits. It affected me emotionally. I wanted to crawl under a rock. No one should ever feel that way. I would never want anyone to go through what I went through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"She gave love a chance. A scammer gave it a bad name. For months, Leslie Pickett thought she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,13159,324928,78264,172,74],"class_list":["post-893560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-jon-bon-jovi","tag-phish","tag-scams","tag-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}