Grandma Thought She Was Texting Robert De Niro. Her Granddaughter Knew It Was a Scam: ‘I Couldn’t Stop Laughing’
Gina Morgan, 76, of South Wales, thought she was messaging Robert De Niro on Facebook. The profile used red-carpet photos and a username that looked like a « Robert De Niro page. » It offered membership cards for exclusive access — video chats, phone calls, even a visit. The top tier was about £400. There was a « manager » waiting. Her granddaughter Shannon Rich, 28, looked at the thread and said the line that should be printed on every elder-fraud flyer: « That’s not Robert De Niro. » Morgan asked, « Well, who is it? » She had not sent money or personal details. Rich said she could not stop laughing. The laugh is the point. The next victim does not have a Shannon in the room.
Celebrity-impersonation fraud is no longer a clumsy Nigerian-prince email. The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center said people 60 and older filed more than 200,000 fraud complaints in 2025, with losses around $7.7 billion. AI-enabled scams, a new bucket for the bureau, accounted for about $893 million. A French woman lost some $850,000 to a Brad Pitt deepfake complete with fake news clips. Others have wired tens of thousands to fake Keanu Reeves and Jason Momoa romances. Tom Hanks and Elon Musk clones sell bogus products and crypto « giveaways. » Voice clones need seconds of audio. Live deepfake video can smile and blink on a call.
The Tells That Still Work
Real movie stars do not sell you a fan card in a Facebook DM. Usernames with « page, » « fan, » or a stray symbol are a tell. Secrecy, fake emergencies, gift cards, wires, and crypto are the payment stack. Off lip-sync and dead eyes are the video stack. The best control is still a second human. In the United States, AARP’s Fraud Watch Network is at 877-908-3360 and the FBI takes reports at ic3.gov. In the UK, it is Action Fraud.
For more of this beat, see The AEGIS Alliance’s Crime News and the Citizen Lab keyboard leak on how typed secrets leave the device.
