Spent 10,000 USD, almost lost house because of 'Bon Jovi online' news

"I'm extremely heartbroken," Pickett, who lives in Louisiana (USA), told Fox News Digital. "I was always ready to trust many times, but he gave me bitter results."

Pickett's story is featured in the National Geographic documentary Super Scam Me, in which journalist Mariana van Zeller goes deep into investigating online scams. "We live in an age of fraud," van Zeller said. "In particular, romance fraud is the fastest growing form of financial crime, causing the heaviest damage. Now is the time to raise awareness."

Pickett said he happened to see the Bon Jovi star's "blue tick" Facebook account in late 2024 and commented on a post. About 5 minutes later, she saw a similar account, but without the verification mark sending friend requests.

"He answered my questions very thoughtfully, so I thought it was real," she said. "I don't know much about vestiges. I have some doubts, but come on, women have the right to dream."

According to Pickett, "Jovi wants to connect with fans in a personal way" and "the account will be closed by the manager if discovered", so secret messages must be sent. The two text each other many times every day and every night, sharing a passion for music and common interests.

Pickett assessed that the person who texted him clearly remembered every detail of the first conversations, occasionally sent flowers to the house, often sent photos and videos of "performances", said "I love you" several times, or even said he had sent a divorce petition to his wife but was keeping it private to protect his public image. She didn't know the other party was a scammer using AI to pose as a rock star.

One time, Pickett showed his cousin the photos and videos he had received. At first, this person was skeptical, saying there was no way Bon Jovi would have a secret relationship with a fan. However, after seeing the photo, this person had to exclaim: "It's really him! There's no doubt about it."

Pickett felt happy to be noticed by his idol. "It felt like I was talking to my best friend," she said. "He said he wanted to meet a normal person, not someone who wants fame, money and the like. Every time we talked, I was a little suspicious, but still prayed it was him."

A few months later, the impostor started asking for the first amount of money. When Jovi was about to have an exclusive show in Nashville, Pickett ordered tickets but couldn't get them. "When I told him, he asked for a meeting through the manager, then gave him an email address and payment instructions, but in cryptocurrency," Pickett said. "I've never even heard the word crypto."

Although skeptical, Pickett followed suit. Instead of websites transferring money from reputable services, she was directed to a "strange" site with the reason that it was "often hacked". Initially, she transferred a small amount, 100-150 USD, but received a notification that the transaction failed. The impostor then instructs to raise the amount, using a variety of methods such as Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and cryptocurrency. When one method failed, she tried another method, even staying up all night trying to find a way to transfer money.

"I thought everything was normal, until I realized the money wasn't refunded to my account," Pickett said.

According to Pickett, the suspicion is still "not big enough", when the crooks continuously send high-fidelity photos and videos. "Once, I told him: Pull your right ear, squint your eyes and stick out your tongue. Within five minutes, the video was sent and I couldn't tell the difference. That's how good the AI ​​is."

Journalist Van Zeller took a look at the videos that crooks sent to Pickett, as well as some victims who were "dating" George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Keanu Reeves... "There used to be very bad videos, but the advancement of AI makes the content look very real now," Zeller commented. "It's no longer a distorted, recognizable deepfake video. They look professional, believable."

In July 2025, the scammer told Pickett that he was flying to Louisiana to meet fans, and sent a photo of her sitting at a table in a hotel she had visited. Lamps, furniture, rugs, dining utensils and even napkin rings all match. During the video call, this person said a few words and then suddenly hung up, saying the manager stopped her because she recorded the call and refused to allow a face-to-face meeting.

This person then suggested that Pickett could "pay more money" to the manager to arrange a second meeting. This time, he asked for a much larger amount of money. "At this point, my heart sank, because I knew I had been deceived," Pickett said sadly.

Pickett contacted Van Zeller and asked a former hacker to track down the scammer's IP address. This person set a trap, luring the subject to receive more Bitcoin. IP data leads to Lagos (Nigeria).

By the time he realized he had been scammed, Pickett had lost more than 10,000 USD (260 million VND) and fell into debt, to the point where the house was at risk of being confiscated. Now she works full-time to rebuild her finances, but admits her emotional trauma makes it difficult for her to trust others.

"It devastated my family, left me broke and emotionally scarred. I don't want anyone to have to go through what I endured," Pickett added.

According to AP, AI technology makes love scams more difficult to recognize by helping crooks create photos, messages and voices that look like real people. Instead of using easy-to-detect fake identities, they build consistent online profiles, maintain natural conversations and personalize their approach to each victim, then create videos or impersonate voices to reinforce trust during calls.

According to the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in April, romance fraud caused Americans to lose nearly 1.5 billion USD in 2025. Data from British police at the beginning of the year also showed that the country lost 106 million pounds due to romance fraud in 2024. A total of nearly 10,000 cases were reported with an average loss of 11,000 pounds per victim. The target is wealthy but lonely middle-aged people.

Cyber ​​security experts recommend that users should not rely solely on images, voice or conversation to verify the identity of online acquaintances. Instead, it is necessary to verify through an independent channel, do not transfer money to acquaintances online and consult relatives before making financial decisions.