How Lagos Fraudster Pulled Off Over $10,000 Romance Scam On a US-Based Lady Using AI

A Louisiana woman, Leslie Pickett, has reportedly lost more than $10,000 after falling victim to a romance scam involving someone who impersonated American rock legend Jon Bon Jovi, a singer she had admired since she was just 14 years old.

Pickett joined Instagram with the help of her daughter and commented on Bon Jovi’s verified account in late 2024. Just five minutes later, an unverified account posing as the rock star sent her a message, claiming he wanted to connect privately with some of his fans.

What started as an exciting encounter with her longtime celebrity crush soon turned into a months-long emotional relationship that would leave her financially devastated.

For seven months, Pickett exchanged messages with the impostor almost every day. They discussed music, personal interests and other aspects of their lives. The scammer gradually won her trust, professed his love for her, sent flowers and shared AI-generated videos that appeared to show Bon Jovi mentioning her name and carrying out requests she made.

To make the deception more believable, the impostor even claimed that he and his wife had secretly filed for divorce, giving Pickett the impression that a romantic relationship between them was possible.

However, things took a troubling turn when the supposed singer began asking her for money.

After about seven months of communication, he claimed he could arrange a private meet-and-greet with her following the sellout of tickets for a performance in Nashville. He encouraged her to make payments using cryptocurrency, insisting it was the safest option.

The initial requests were relatively small, ranging from $100 to $150. But the demands gradually increased as the scammer repeatedly claimed that previous payments had failed. He then instructed Pickett to send money through several platforms, including PayPal, Venmo, Cash App and Bitcoin.

In July 2025, the impostor allegedly took the deception a step further by claiming he was travelling to Louisiana to meet her in person. Pickett reportedly became hopeful that the long-awaited meeting would finally happen.

However, a supposed security clearance call abruptly ended, and the scammer later demanded additional Bitcoin to arrange another meeting. At that point, Pickett began to suspect that something was seriously wrong.

She eventually contacted investigative journalist Mariana van Zeller for help uncovering the truth.

During the production of the National Geographic documentary Super Scam Me, van Zeller and a former hacker traced the suspected scammer's IP address to Lagos, Nigeria. They also used Google Earth to identify a house they believed was connected to the alleged scam operation.

The financial and emotional consequences of the experience were devastating for Pickett. She said she lost more than $10,000 and fell so deeply into debt that she faced the possibility of losing her home to foreclosure.

Beyond the money, the experience also affected her ability to trust other people, leaving her struggling to recover from the emotional betrayal.

Pickett is now working to rebuild her finances while sharing her story to warn others about the dangers of online romance scams.

Van Zeller explained that scammers often spend months building emotional connections with their victims before introducing financial requests. With advances in artificial intelligence, these criminals can now create increasingly convincing videos and other fake content to impersonate celebrities and manipulate unsuspecting fans.