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She gave love a chance. A scammer gave it a bad name.
For months, Leslie Pickett thought she was talking to Jon Bon Jovi, the rock star she had adored since she was 14. The man behind the screen messaged her day and night, sent convincing videos and eventually persuaded her to hand over thousands of dollars.
By the time the deception unraveled, she had lost more than $10,000 and come close to losing her home.
WOMAN LOSES NEARLY $1M IN LINKEDIN ROMANCE SCAM
Mariana van Zeller interviews Leslie, a scam victim in Louisiana. (National Geographic)
“My heart was shattered,” the Louisiana resident told Fox News Digital. “I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there was nothing but ill intent. That’s what hurt the most.”
Pickett’s story is featured in the National Geographic documentary special “Super Scam Me,” in which Emmy Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller goes undercover to investigate online scams, traveling to Africa to confront a suspected scammer face-to-face.
In “Super Scam Me,” Mariana van Zeller goes undercover to investigate romance scammers. (National Geographic/Daniel Hollis Diamond)
“We’re living in the era of scams,” van Zeller told Fox News Digital. “Romance scams, in particular, are the fastest growing, and, I believe, most devastating form of financial crime out there. One in seven Americans have reported losing money to romance scams. And, so, I think now is the best time to raise awareness.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to Bon Jovi’s spokesperson for comment.
Pickett, who was “more of a Facebook person,” was introduced to Instagram by her daughter. She came across Bon Jovi’s verified account in late 2024 and commented on one of his posts. Five minutes later, she received a response from an account that appeared to belong to Bon Jovi himself. However, the account wasn’t verified.
“He gave very thoughtful answers to my questions, so I genuinely thought it was him,” Pickett said. “And I wasn’t too knowledgeable about those check marks. I had doubts, but hey, a girl can dream.”
Leslie Pickett has been a fan of Bon Jovi since she was a teen. (Getty Images)
According to Pickett, the impostor told her Bon Jovi wanted to connect with his fans more personally. He also warned that if Bon Jovi’s management discovered the secret account, it would be shut down.
For months, the two exchanged messages “several times a day and several times at night,” bonding over music and common interests. According to Pickett, the impostor remembered details from their earliest conversations, told her “I love you” and even sent a bouquet of flowers to her home. He also sent recorded videos, and the two eventually connected on a live video call.
Pickett, who had no idea he was using generative AI to play the rock star, was convinced she was talking to Bon Jovi. The scammer also claimed that he and his wife had quietly filed for divorce but were keeping it under wraps to protect his public image.
Leslie Pickett (left), pictured here with Mariana van Zeller, lost “over $10,000.” (National Geographic)
Pickett showed the photos and videos to her cousin, who was skeptical that Bon Jovi would be in a secret relationship with a fan. But after seeing the images, he reportedly exclaimed, “That’s him! There’s no doubt about it.”
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Mariana van Zeller with other scam victims from across the country in “Super Scam Me.” (National Geographic)
“It was like talking to my best friend,” Pickett said. “He said he wanted to meet someone normal. He didn’t want somebody that wanted fame, money and things like that. So, we didn’t really talk about stuff like that. We talked about everyday life. I had my doubts, but I was praying it was him.”
Months later, the man posing as Bon Jovi started asking for money.
In “Super Scam Me,” Mariana van Zeller exposes the tactics, the technology and the psychology used by scammers. (National Geographic/Bryan Liberty)
“He had an exclusive performance in Nashville, where he only let a thousand people buy tickets,” Pickett recalled. “The show was legitimate. Unfortunately, I tried to buy tickets, but they sold out in four minutes. When I told him about it, he suggested a meet and greet. He had never asked me for money before.
“He said, ‘To get you in the meet and greet, you’re going to have go through management since there are no tickets left.’ He gave me emails to his management, and he walked me through how to do everything. I’ve never even heard of the word ‘crypto.’”
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Jon Bon Jovi performs on stage at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on Sept. 4, 2026. (Samir Hussein/WireImage for ABA)
“That was a red flag, but the money was given with intent,” Pickett continued. “I was supposed to get something in return. Meet and greets are also a common thing with famous people, so I didn’t see it as scammy at all.
“The bitcoin and crypto were the only things that made me go, ‘Why am I not logging into a regular site?’ He said, ‘Those get hacked all the time. This is the safest way to do it.’ He put me at ease.”
Mariana van Zeller recruits Arman Sadri to find out who is scamming Leslie Pickett. (National Geographic/Bryan Liberty)
The requests for money started small but added up over time. Pickett sent $100 or $150 at a time, only to be told the payments hadn’t gone through. The impostor then instructed her to send larger amounts through different payment methods, including Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and cryptocurrency. When one method supposedly failed, she would try another, sometimes staying up at night trying to figure out how to send the money.
“Nothing felt abnormal until I realized the money wasn’t coming back into my account,” Pickett said.
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Mariana van Zeller poses in her “Mary Zelle” disguise. (National Geographic/Bryan Liberty)
Van Zeller described the scammer’s interactions with Pickett as a “slow burn.”
“At first approach, it started as a normal conversation,” van Zeller explained. “People think he approached her and said, ‘Hi, I’m Jon Bon Jovi. I’m madly in love with you. Send me money.’ That’s not the case.
“It took him seven months before he asked Leslie for money. Many people think, ‘How can you give money to a stranger?’ But for Leslie, and many other victims, this was at a point when he wasn’t a stranger. With some victims, they speak to scammers for months, even years.”
Advances in artificial intelligence made the deception even harder to detect.
According to Mariana van Zeller, romance scammers stole more than a billion dollars from American victims in 2025 alone. She wants to know exactly how they do it. (National Geographic)
“I had the chance of watching some of the videos that the fake Jon Bon Jovi sent Leslie,” van Zeller said. “At one point during this experiment, I was dating three George Clooneys, several Brad Pitts and a few Keanu Reeves.
“A few sent me videos that were very bad, but some were very good. I received one video from a fake George Clooney that you can watch in the documentary that looked very real. These weren’t the old deep fake videos of the past that are full of distortions. These looked professional, believable.”
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Mariana van Zeller and her team discovered that Leslie Pickett’s scammer was in Africa. (National Geographic/Bryan Liberty)
“In the videos, he would say my name,” Pickett recalled. “He would send me videos all the time. One time, I told him, ‘Pull on your right ear, cross your eyes and stick your tongue out.’ He would send me that within five minutes. That’s how good AI is.”
Mariana van Zeller with flowers from a scammer. (National Geographic)
In July 2025, the scammer told Pickett he was flying to Louisiana for a meet and greet. He sent her photos of himself seated at a table in a hotel she recognized. The light fixtures, furniture, carpet, utensils and even the napkin rings all matched.
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Mariana van Zeller and Jeff Plunkett speak with a National Geographic executive on the phone during filming “Super Scam Me.” (National Geographic)
According to Pickett, the scammer told her he needed to complete a security clearance check through Google Chat before he could finally meet in person. When Pickett tried to join the video call, he abruptly hung up. He texted her afterward, claiming there was a security breach because his management believed she was trying to record the call.
Mariana van Zeller interviews a scammer in Ghana. (National Geographic)
The impostor then told Pickett that if she was willing to pay more money to his management, they could arrange another security check, and he would even remain in town for a while. This time, he requested a much larger amount of Bitcoin.
“At that point, I thought, ‘Oh my God, this is just not real,'” Pickett said. “That’s when my heart sank because I knew I had been duped. That’s when I decided to reach out to Mariana for help.”
Leslie Pickett (right) already had her suspicions when she reached out to Mariana van Zeller for help. (National Geographic)
Even after realizing she had been deceived, Pickett wondered whether the man she had been talking to for months was someone living in the United States who genuinely cared about her, someone who wasn’t interested only in money but wanted a meaningful relationship.
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Arman Sadri, a reformed hacker who is now a cybersecurity expert, teams up with Mariana van Zeller to find out who Leslie Pickett has been talking to. (National Geographic)
Van Zeller and Pickett teamed up with a former hacker who helped them trace the scammer’s internet protocol (IP) address. The hacker set a trap designed to lure the impostor into claiming more Bitcoin. The IP address led them to Lagos, Nigeria. They then used Google Earth to identify what they believed was the house from which the scammer had been messaging Pickett.
By then, Pickett said she had lost “over $10,000” to the scam. She had fallen so deeply into debt that her home was facing foreclosure.
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Mariana van Zeller is pictured in Accra, Ghana, as she gears up to confront a scammer. (National Geographic/Daniel Hollis Diamond)
“I was devastated,” Pickett said. “By then, I was starting to suspect he was fake. But when Mariana got confirmation, it rocked my world. He could have just come clean, but he just took advantage of my kindness. That’s what crushed me.”
During filming, Mariana van Zeller, dressed as “Mary Zelle,” gets wooed by “George Clooney.” (National Geographic/Bryan Liberty)
Today, Pickett is still rebuilding her finances while working a full-time job. She said the emotional toll has been even harder to overcome, leaving her struggling to trust others. She has also become an advocate for scam victims, using social media to warn others about the dangers of interacting with unverified accounts.
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National Geographic’s “Super Scam Me” is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu. (National Geographic)
“My ultimate goal today is to slow it down and eventually stop this industry,” Pickett said.
“It devastated my family. It devastated me. It put me in financial dire straits. It affected me emotionally. I wanted to crawl under a rock. No one should ever feel that way. I would never want anyone to go through what I went through.”
