How do I know if a call is really from a government agency?

Legitimate government agencies never call demanding immediate payment, threatening arrest, or asking for gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency. Hang up and call the agency directly using their official number from usa.gov.

What is a pig butchering scam?

Pig butchering is a long-con investment fraud where scammers build fake friendships or romances over weeks before introducing a fake crypto investment platform. Losses average $120,000 per victim. Any unsolicited investment tip is a red flag.

What should I do if I have already been scammed?

Report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, the FBI at IC3.gov, and your state attorney general. If a bank transfer was involved, call your bank immediately — you may have a window to reverse it. Document everything: screenshots, phone numbers, transaction records.

AI Deepfakes Are Impersonating OnlyFans Creators to Steal From Fans

Someone Who Looks and Sounds Like Your Favorite Creator Is Asking You for Money — and They Don't Exist

There is a scam running right now that is hard to spot, easy to fall for, and destroying real people's lives on both sides of the screen. It targets fans of OnlyFans creators. It uses AI to clone faces and voices. And it is working.

Here is exactly how it plays out — and what you can do to stop it cold.

The Playbook, Step by Step

Scammers have turned content creator impersonation into an assembly line. The steps are fast, cheap, and increasingly convincing.

Step 1 — Steal the face and voice. The attacker grabs a single still photo of a creator from a public profile. That photo gets fed into an AI animation tool that makes it appear to speak. A separate voice-cloning tool scrapes audio from existing videos and produces a synthetic copy of the creator's voice. The result: a fake video that looks and sounds like the real person.

Step 2 — Build the funnel on TikTok. A new account goes up impersonating the creator — same name, same profile image, same style of posts. TikTok's algorithm does the distribution work for free. Fans who follow the original creator are likely to encounter the fake one and assume it's legitimate.

Step 3 — Move the target to Snapchat. This is the critical pivot. The fake account messages fans directly or responds to comments, steering them into private Snapchat DMs. Snapchat is chosen deliberately — messages disappear, conversations are harder to screenshot and report, and there is no paper trail. The pressure-cooker environment is less visible to platforms and investigators alike.

Step 4 — Make the offer. Once the fan is in a private Snapchat conversation, the "creator" promises something exclusive: private content, a personal live chat, a custom video. The price is usually around $150, paid via Cash App.

Step 5 — Collect and vanish. The moment the payment clears, the victim is blocked. No content. No refund. No recourse.

Real Creators. Real Damage.

This is not a hypothetical threat. Creator Jessieanna Campbell says fans contact her regularly — after already losing money — having been scammed by someone impersonating her on Snapchat. The losses hover around $150 per victim, which is small enough that many people don't bother reporting it, but large enough to sting.

The damage to creators goes beyond embarrassment. A separate creator reports that angry scam victims have shown up at her home. She said it directly: "I could be hurt or killed." When a stranger loses money and believes a specific person took it from them, the consequences for the real creator can turn physical.

Creators carry the weight of crimes they did not commit. Fans carry financial losses and the humiliation of being deceived. The scammer pockets the money and moves on to the next target.

How to Spot a Deepfake Before You Pay Anything

AI-generated video is not perfect. If you know what to look for, the cracks show.

Watch the face closely — especially the teeth and eyebrows. In a TikTok impersonating creator Elaina St. James, the tell-tale signs were visible on close inspection: distorted, slightly wrong-looking teeth and eyebrows that barely moved. Natural human expressions involve constant micro-movements. Deepfakes often freeze or misrender these areas because the AI struggles to reproduce them accurately.

Other red flags to check:

Edges of the face blur or shimmer slightly, especially around the hairline and jaw
Blinking is infrequent or looks mechanical
The lighting on the face doesn't quite match the background
Audio feels slightly out of sync with lip movements
The account was created recently and has few original posts

The most reliable check of all: go to the creator's official, verified account — the one with the platform checkmark or the link in their legitimate bio — and see if they have posted anything about that offer. If the offer only exists in a DM from an account you cannot independently verify, treat it as a scam.

If You're a Fan: Protect Yourself Before You Pay

Never send money through Cash App, Venmo, or Zelle based on a DM. These payment methods have near-zero fraud protection. Once the money moves, it is gone. Credit cards and PayPal offer dispute mechanisms; peer-to-peer payment apps do not.

Verify through official channels first. Check the creator's real website or their bio links on major platforms. If they are running a promotion, it will appear there — not only in an unsolicited private message.

If you've been scammed:

Report the account on every platform it appeared on
File a complaint with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov
Contact your bank or payment app immediately — the faster you report, the better your odds of any recovery
Do not confront the creator you believe wronged you; they were likely impersonated, not the source of the fraud

If You're a Creator: Defend Your Identity Now

Set up a Google Alert for your name and username. If fake accounts are using your identity, this is often how you find out before a fan does.

Post publicly about the scam playbook. Tell your audience directly: you will never DM them asking for Cash App payments. The more your real fans know what your legitimate communication looks like, the harder it is to fool them.

Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) on every account you own — ideally using an authenticator app, not SMS. If a scammer cannot take over your real account, they are forced to build a fake one that is easier to spot.

Document your face and voice. If you ever need to prove to a platform or law enforcement that a video is not you, having extensive video archives of yourself makes comparison far easier.

Do This Right Now

Fans: Before sending any creator money via DM, verify the request on their official verified profile. If you cannot, don't pay.
Fans: Screenshot any suspicious account and report it to the platform and to the real creator.
Creators: Post a clear, pinned statement telling fans exactly how you do — and don't — communicate about paid content.
Everyone: Turn on 2FA on TikTok, Snapchat, and any account connected to your financial identity.
Everyone: Learn the deepfake tells — frozen eyebrows, distorted teeth, hair-edge blur. Once you see them, you cannot unsee them.

The technology that makes these scams possible is only getting cheaper and more convincing. The defense is not technical — it is behavioral. Verify before you pay. Question before you trust. The scammer is counting on urgency and excitement to short-circuit your judgment. Slow down, and they lose.