She Thought She Was Dating Jon Bon Jovi. Then He Asked for Money.

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She thought she was in a relationship with Jon Bon Jovi. For almost a year, Leslie Pickett sent "Jon" almost all her money, until she was on the verge of losing her house to foreclosure. That's when she reached out to me.

Leslie's story is featured in my new National Geographic documentary, SUPER SCAM ME.

Watch it now on Disney+ and Hulu.

Disney+: https://www.disneyplus.com/browse/entity-3bf2735c-0983-47ea-b927-3ac38c2bf7efdisneyplus

Hulu:

https://www.hulu.com/movie/super-scam-me-3bf2735c-0983-47ea-b927-3ac38c2bf7ef

Leslie has been a Jon Bon Jovi fan since she was a teenager. She had just created a new Instagram profile when she commented on what she thought was a verified JBJ account. Soon she was talking to "him" every day, for months. It wasn't until several months into the relationship that "Jon" asked her for money so she could attend a meet and greet. The requests kept coming, and she kept sending money, until the moment she realized he might be a scammer. Leslie had been caught in a celebrity romance scam, where criminals pretend to be famous people to win a fan's trust and then their money.

Leslie is far from alone. One in seven American adults say they've lost money to an online dating or romance scam. In 2025 alone, Americans reported losing nearly $1.5 billion to romance scams, which makes them one of the fastest-growing and most devastating forms of financial crime.

When Leslie contacted me, I was in the middle of production on SUPER SCAM ME. With help from Arman the Cyber, a white hat hacker (an ethical hacker who uses his skills to protect people, not exploit them) I met at DEF CON, the giant hacker conference in Las Vegas, we were able to track down her scammer.

In this conversation, Leslie and I talk about the shame so many victims carry, and why "how could anyone fall for that?" is the wrong question. We look at the videos "Jon" sent her that looked completely real, and how scammers are using technology and AI. Generative AI can now convincingly imitate celebrities and public figures, and that's making these scams harder and harder to spot. We also go through the warning signs everyone should know.

For SUPER SCAM ME, I got a new nose. And new hair. And a full makeover. As Mary Zell, a woman looking for love online, I became the bait. Along the way I started dating a four-star general deployed to Syria, got wooed by "George Clooney," and teamed up with a hacker who helped me unmask several scammers, including my own. I wanted to understand their tactics and tools, and how they earn such deep trust.

If you think you or someone you love is being scammed, stop sending money, save every message and report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and IC3.gov. You can also contact me though my website.

Join The Hidden Third on Patreon for exclusive behind-the-scenes footage from SUPER SCAM ME: patreon.com/thehiddenthird

🎙️ From Emmy and Peabody Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller comes THE HIDDEN THIRD, a weekly dive into the underground markets that quietly power a third of the global economy. Every episode, Mariana sits down with people who know these worlds firsthand: the hustlers, smugglers, scammers, kingpins and those trying to shut them down. The series reveals how they function, why they endure and the profound ways they impact us all.

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