The Digital Con

A Decade of Deception in Social Media Scams

Ten years ago, I received a message that shook me to my core. A woman, voice cracking with grief, said she’d lost $30,000 to a man she thought was me. Scammers had stolen my photos from Facebook and Instagram, crafting a fake persona to lure her into a romance that drained her savings. Since then, I’ve heard from countless others—women who’ve sent tens of thousands to fraudsters using my face, believing they were building a future with me. For a decade, I’ve fought to shut down these fake accounts, reporting them to platforms, chasing down impostors, and warning victims. But like digital weeds, they keep sprouting back. This isn’t just my battle; it’s a window into a 2025 crisis where social media scams—fake Elon Musk crypto schemes, phishing links posing as Nike ads, and catfishing cons—are stealing billions globally. How do scammers exploit our trust, and why is stopping them so hard?