Louisiana Woman Loses Over $10,000 to Jon Bon Jovi Impersonator, Nearly Loses Her Home

Leslie Pickett has loved Jon Bon Jovi's music since she was 14. That is what the person behind a fake Instagram account used against her.

Pickett, 55, a mortgage lender from north Louisiana, says she believed for about 10 months that she was in a relationship with the rock star. By the time she realized it was a scam, she had lost more than $10,000 and came close to losing her home. Her account appears in the National Geographic special "Super Scam Me," out Oct. 17.

How the con started

Pickett told Business Insider she came across Bon Jovi's verified Instagram account toward the end of 2024 and left a comment on a post. A personal message followed. It did not come from the verified account, but from a different one showing his face.

The message asked how long she had been a fan and what her favorite song was. Then came the first redirect. The sender said that if his management found out he was messaging directly on Instagram, they would shut down the page. He suggested WhatsApp or Telegram instead.

Pickett had never used either app. She figured it out.

The tactics

The messages came "several times a day and several times at night," Pickett told Fox News Digital.

When she asked why Bon Jovi would want to talk to her, the sender wrote "I love you." She challenged him to name five things he loved about her. He wrote down five, some of them drawn from conversations in the first and second months.

The account sent recorded videos. It also held a live video chat, but Pickett told Business Insider it was grainy, he was far back from the camera, and the call lasted only five seconds before it cut out. It still looked very much like Bon Jovi to her, she said.

A mixed bouquet of flowers in a vase arrived at her house. She threw it away immediately so no one would ask where it came from. Pickett said she supposed her address is public record.

The sender also claimed he and his wife had already filed for divorce but were keeping it quiet to protect his public image. He said he wanted someone who loved him for himself, not his money and fame.

Pickett told Business Insider the only person she confided in was her cousin, Jerry, who told her it was a fantasy and not to fall in love with the guy. She did not listen.

Where the money came in

The requests for money began with a meet-and-greet. Pickett told Business Insider she paid roughly $3,000, in increments, for what she understood to be a day with the singer and dinner. She once sent $1,000; the other payments ranged from $150 to $500. She was steered toward Cash App or PayPal and shown how to send bitcoin through screenshots of the process. Fox News Digital reported she also used Venmo and other methods when payments supposedly failed.

In July 2025, the account claimed he was flying to Louisiana and sent pictures of a hotel she recognized. He then demanded a "security clearance" call and, when it failed, said she would have to pay more money for a second security check. Pickett told Business Insider that was the only time she paid a much larger amount of bitcoin. After that, he made every excuse not to meet her.

Fox News Digital's account says Pickett did not realize generative AI was being used to imitate the singer. Details also vary on whether the account had a verification badge: Pickett told Fox and Business Insider it was not verified, while Tech Times, relaying journalist Mariana van Zeller's podcast account, described a checkmark.

Fox News Digital said it reached out to Bon Jovi's spokesperson for comment.

Tracing the account

Pickett told Business Insider the doubts began to flood in and she asked herself whether it was a scam. That same month she contacted van Zeller, the host of National Geographic's "Trafficked," who was filming "Super Scam Me." That October, they teamed up with a reformed hacker and obtained the scammer's IP address by setting a trap to lure him into claiming more bitcoin. The address was in Lagos, Nigeria, and they looked up the exact house on Google Earth, Pickett said.

The numbers behind the story

Van Zeller says romance scams are "the fastest growing, and I believe, most devastating form of financial crime out there." She told Fox News Digital that one in seven Americans have reported losing money to romance scams. In the documentary she says romance scammers stole more than $1 billion from Americans in 2025.

Pickett's loss of more than $10,000 is small next to some other victims in the film, who cite losses of $24,000, $1,080,762 and $2.8 million.

The "how stupid could they be" problem

Van Zeller told TechRadar the reason she made the film was the reaction she gets from the public. When she reports on these scams, people respond with "How stupid could they be?" and "Why do you give money to a stranger?"

Her answer: "I truly believe this could really happen to everyone." She says she wanted to turn the table and focus on the actions of the scammers.

Pickett's own account shows what that looks like in practice. She told Fox she had doubts at the start: "I had doubts, but hey, a girl can dream." She asked pointed questions and got convincing answers. She told Fox the part that hurt most was learning the intent was malicious: "I was still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. But there was nothing but ill intent."

What happens next

"Super Scam Me" is streaming on Disney+ and Hulu. In it, van Zeller goes undercover to investigate online scams, traveling to Africa to confront a suspected scammer face to face.