Grandma thought she was texting Robert De Niro, but her granddaughter knew it was a scam, ‘I couldn’t stop laughing’
A tech-savvy granddaughter saved her grandmother from falling for an online impostor posing as Hollywood legend Robert De Niro. The would-be victim was Gina Morgan, a 76-year-old from South Wales in the UK, who spent a good while chatting on Facebook with someone claiming to be the “Godfather Part II” star, according to Caters News.
Morgan wasn’t easily rattled by the red-carpet photos, the giveaway username “Robert De Niro page,” or the pitch to buy exclusive “membership cards” — an offer with the whiff of a con worthy of De Niro’s character Jimmy Conway in Goodfellas. “That is not Robert De Niro!” her 28-year-old granddaughter, Shannon Rich, can be heard exclaiming in a video of the message exchange. “Well, who is it?” Morgan replies, taking it all in stride.
The scammer tried to coax the pensioner into paying for a “VIP fan card” — the priciest tier ran about £400 (roughly $500) — that falsely promised “every access” to the actor, including video chats, phone calls, and even an in-person visit. Morgan was told there were “three types of membership card” and that the impostor could “connect” her with their “manager” to arrange one.
Happily, this story had a comic rather than costly ending. “Some people online were concerned about her, but my nan is smart enough not to give out any personal details,” Rich said. “Nan was showing me the messages on Facebook from a fake Robert De Niro profile, and I couldn’t stop laughing.”
A Funny Story With a Serious Warning
Morgan’s near-miss is amusing, but the underlying scam is anything but rare — and it has only grown more dangerous. Celebrity-impersonation scams have exploded, and fraudsters are increasingly using artificial intelligence to make them frighteningly convincing. According to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, people age 60 and older filed more than 200,000 fraud complaints in 2025, with losses totaling roughly $7.7 billion. AI-enabled scams reported to the FBI accounted for about $893 million in losses that year — the first time the bureau broke out AI fraud as its own category.
The De Niro playbook is everywhere. A French woman was defrauded of around $850,000 by scammers impersonating Brad Pitt with AI-generated images and fake news articles. Other victims have lost tens of thousands believing they were in relationships with stars like Keanu Reeves or Jason Momoa, and deepfake videos of celebrities from Tom Hanks to Elon Musk have been used to push bogus products and crypto “giveaways.” Security researchers note that with just seconds of audio, scammers can now clone a familiar voice — and pair it with deepfake video that smiles, blinks, and reacts in real time.
How to Spot a Celebrity Impostor
Consumer-protection groups including AARP point to a consistent set of red flags. A real celebrity will never message a fan out of the blue to ask for money or personal details. Be wary of profiles with odd usernames, extra symbols, or “page”/”fan” labels; requests to keep the conversation secret; urgent pleas tied to a supposed emergency; and demands for payment in hard-to-trace forms like gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency. Promises of “VIP access,” private visits, or exclusive fan cards that appear nowhere on a star’s official channels are classic bait. With AI deepfakes, watch for subtle giveaways too — slightly off lip-sync, unnatural blinking, or audio that sounds a touch robotic.
The best defense is the one that saved Gina Morgan: a second set of eyes. Talking with older relatives about these scams before a crisis hits, and checking in when something seems off, can stop a con before any money changes hands. In the US, the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline (877-908-3360) offers free guidance, and suspected fraud can be reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov. In the UK, scams can be reported to Action Fraud.
For more scam-awareness and crime coverage, see theAegisAlliance.com’s Crime News section.
Sources: The Sun / Caters News, the AARP Fraud Watch Network, and the National Council on Aging.
