Lainey Wilson Says She’s “Ruined A Couple Of Marriages” Thanks To Online Scammers

I don’t know how many times it needs to be said, but you’re not in a relationship with a celebrity you’ve never met.

These scams have been around a long time, with fake accounts messaging people pretending to be an artist or other celebrity and convincing people that they’re in a relationship before asking the unsuspecting victims to send money.

It sounds crazy, but unfortunately we hear too many stories about people who actually fall for it. And with the advancement of AI, it’s only getting worse. Scammers can create fake videos showing the celebrity talking to their victim, and unless you’re able to spot the warning signs, they look pretty real.

Just a week or so ago, a story went viral of an Ohio man who received a video message from a scammer pretending to be Jelly Roll, telling him that he’d won a prize but needed to send money to pay for the shipping of his prize. The man ultimately sent the fake “Jelly Roll” $70, which he says was all the money he had for the rest of the month because he’s on a fixed income.

It’s sad.

But aside from people losing money, the scams can also have other real-world consequences – like people losing their marriages.

Lainey Wilson has been the subject of these scams, as have most artists these days. And as she told Theo Von during a recent episode of This Past Weekend, she can’t help but feel bad for the people who fall for them:

“What I’ve noticed is it’s like a certain age group. It’s probably lonely people, whether they’re married or not they’re lonely. And they just find the right person. They must try it to a million people to find the right person to actually convince. And they’re asking for money, and they just give them lots of money. Lots of money. And it’s sad.”

And she also recalled messages that she’s received from spouses whose partners thought they were in a relationship with Lainey:

“The amount of messages I get about…people who think that they are actually in a relationship with me and stuff because somebody’s pretending to be me. It’s really bad.

I’ve ruined a couple of marriages on accident and didn’t even mean to. They’re like, ‘My husband of 30 years believes he’s talking to you and this and that and whatever.'”

Unfortunately though, these scammers are relentless. As soon as you get one account taken down, 10 more pop up, and as Lainey says, there’s not much an artist can do about fake accounts impersonating them:

“There’s literally nothing I can do, besides telling y’all about it.”

It’s an important cautionary tale for anyone who thinks they’re messaging with their favorite artist. There’s zero chance that Lainey, or any other artist out there, is messaging you from their “private account,” and there’s zero chance that you’re in a relationship with a famous celebrity you’ve never met. (Lainey is happily engaged to her fiance Duck Hodges).

There’s also no way that any artist is going to ask you to send them money, especially in Apple gift cards or whatever the latest scam is. These are professional scammers sitting in some call center in India preying on unsuspecting victims who are easy targets, and unfortunately it has real-world consequences.

I know we say it all the time, but be careful who you’re messaging with. If you get a message claiming to be from your favorite artist, or see a comment from them on social media, I can almost guarantee that it’s fake.

Keep your head on a swivel out there.

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