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We've heard far too many stories about people being tricked into handing over their life savings by someone pretending to be a celebrity and conning them, but what about when the shoe's on the other foot?
Imagine you're sitting at home and you get a message from Selena Gomez, asking to borrow some money because she needs to book an Uber home and her account has been locked. You might laugh, but don't be so quick to judge.
Posting on Instagram, the Wizards of Waverly Place and Only Murders in the Building star shared a bizarre story that seemed to expose a scammer. In 2025 alone, we've seen a woman from France hand over $850,000 to an AI Brad Pitt and a UK-based man fall for a similar scheme with a fake Jennifer Aniston.
AI scammers are getting more sophisticated by the day, and with even AI that’s supposed to help us masquerading as real people with tragic consequences, it's harder than ever to tell what (and who) is real.
The FBI has recently released a warning about an AI scam that's draining the accounts of seniors who are being scammed by voices that mimic the bank or loved ones, while a woman has also lost her life savings to someone who used AI videos to pose as General Hospital's Steve Burton. It seems no one is above being targeted, with Gomez exposing an incident where it appears someone posed as her Wizards of Waverly Place co-star, Jake T. Austin.
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Considering Gomez and Austin have played the brother-sister duo of Alex and Max Russo since 2007, we imagine she's got a pretty good idea of whether it's him messaging her.
On October 16, Gomez took to Instagram and wrote: "Taking advantage of me and my love for my friends… enjoy that person’s number. When Jake T. Austin is in trouble, I need to hear from him and him only."
Implying that someone reached out to her while pretending to be Austin in a time of need, a clearly vexed Gomez shared the scammer's phone number. More than just being put on blast to her 417 million followers, it has since spread to Reddit and other corners of the internet, meaning far more people have seen it. If we were the scammer, we'd imagine they've already thrown their phone out of the window as it's blown up with abuse.
Responding to Gomez's boss move, one person wrote: "400M+ followers btw 😆whoever number that is, is f**ked."
Another added: "One thing about Selena is that she does not play about her little bro jake 😭."
Looking at the more serious side, a third said: "These scams are going crazy lately. We just had one from a police department that my spouse was in jail and needed bail money...he was asleep next to me lmao."
Others weren't impressed, as someone concluded: "What the person did was not right but why tf would Selena doxx someone knowing how crazy her fans are? There are three different people who's information is being spread around right now by her fans."
