Fake profiles, phishing and artificial intelligence: athletes increasingly targeted by lucrative online scams
Professional athletes are increasingly becoming targets of sophisticated online scams that combine identity theft, impersonation, social engineering and the misuse of artificial intelligence. The issue has returned to the spotlight after a case in the United States in which a man from Georgia, according to an indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice, allegedly targeted professional athletes by posing as a well-known woman from the adult film industry. The investigation shows how once relatively simple phishing has turned into complex schemes in which victims are induced to hand over login credentials, personal photographs, payment card details or other sensitive information.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Kwamaine Jerell Ford, a 34-year-old from Buford in the state of Georgia, pleaded not guilty before a federal court on March 13, 2026, to charges including wire fraud, computer fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft and sex trafficking. The indictment charges him with using false identities to contact professional athletes, obtain sensitive data from them and then access their accounts. It is important to emphasize that these are allegations and that the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court.
The case drew additional attention because, according to U.S. authorities, it involves not only financial fraud but also allegations of exploiting a third person. The Department of Justice states that Ford, using false personas, allegedly induced a woman to engage in commercial sexual relations with athletes under false promises connected to modeling. Some encounters, according to the indictment, were recorded without the athletes' knowledge or consent, while Ford allegedly took a financial share. Such a combination of digital fraud, sexual exploitation and identity theft shows why security experts increasingly view athletes as a high-risk group.
How the fake-identity scam worked
According to a statement by the U.S. Department of Justice, Ford allegedly used the identity of a well-known woman from the adult film industry to gain the trust of professional athletes. In such schemes, the first contact is crucial: the message must look convincing enough for the victim to believe they are communicating with a person they recognize from the public sphere. This is followed by a move to private communication, the exchange of explicit content or an offer of supposedly exclusive material, which opens the door to extortion, theft of login credentials or financial manipulation.
U.S. authorities state that in this case athletes were allegedly directed toward fake customer-support messages that looked as if they came from Apple. This method is known as phishing: the attacker imitates a trustworthy service in order to induce the victim to enter a username, password, identity-verification code or other security data. If the attacker gains access to a cloud account, the consequences can be serious because such accounts often contain photographs, private messages, contacts, documents, financial data and device backups.
Ford's name had already appeared earlier in a similar context. The U.S. Department of Justice announced in 2019 that he had been sentenced to prison for hacking more than 100 Apple accounts belonging to well-known professional athletes and musicians and for spending nearly 325,000 dollars using stolen financial data. That earlier case shows that attacks on famous people are not limited to one-off incidents, but may be part of a long-running pattern in which perpetrators combine publicly available information, social manipulation and technical weaknesses in user habits.
Why athletes are a particularly vulnerable group
Athletes are an attractive target for scammers because of the combination of high public visibility, substantial income and a large number of digital traces. Their schedules, locations, family relationships, commercial partners and habits can often be tracked through social networks, club announcements, media reports and public appearances. Unlike large companies, which usually have information-security departments, individual athletes and their families often rely on personal devices, private email addresses and their own security habits.
The Guardian, citing security experts and cases from sport, reported that scams targeting athletes are developing into an industry worth nearly one billion dollars over a longer period. In this context, it is not only about stealing money from accounts. Attacks may include blackmail, theft of photographs, compromise of business negotiations, fake investment offers, fraudulent charity campaigns, misuse of an athlete's name in advertisements and attacks on family members. Major sports competitions further increase the risk because ticket, travel and accommodation scams also spread during the same period, while public interest in athletes rises sharply.
A particular problem is that athletes often have a large number of intermediaries: agents, managers, personal assistants, coaches, sponsors, doctors, media contacts and family members. Every additional person in the communication chain can become an entry point for attackers. If a scammer convinces an assistant to urgently send a document, an agent to open a link or a family member to confirm a code, the attack can succeed without direct contact with the athlete. That is why experts increasingly warn that the protection of public figures must include their entire professional and private circle.
Artificial intelligence has accelerated impersonation
The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center has warned that criminals use generative artificial intelligence to create convincing texts, photographs, videos and voice messages. The IC3 warning states that AI can be used to impersonate public figures or close contacts, to create fake audio recordings and to communicate more convincingly with victims. This is especially dangerous in cases where the victim receives a message that appears personal, urgent and visually or vocally credible.
In May 2025, IC3 additionally warned that malicious actors had used text and voice messages generated by artificial intelligence to pose as senior U.S. officials. Although that warning referred to public officials, its logic is directly applicable to sport: people with high public exposure have enough publicly available photographs, interviews and recordings for them to be convincingly imitated. A scammer no longer needs a perfect technical attack if they can create a sufficiently convincing impression of identity.
For athletes, the risk is further amplified because communication often takes place quickly and informally. Messages on social networks, messaging apps and short deadlines are part of everyday life in the sports and marketing environment. In such a rhythm, it is easier to skip identity verification, especially if the message looks as if it comes from a well-known person, sponsor, club contact or technology support. Much of modern digital fraud rests precisely on this combination of trust, speed and pressure.
Broader context: scams are recording record losses
Data from the U.S. FBI show that in 2024 IC3 received 859,532 reports of suspected internet crime, with reported losses exceeding 16.6 billion dollars. The FBI states that this was a 33 percent increase in losses compared with 2023. Among the most commonly reported categories were phishing and spoofing, extortion and personal data breaches, which are precisely the methods that often appear in attacks on public figures.
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced that consumers in 2024 reported more than 12.5 billion dollars in losses due to fraud, which is 25 percent more than the year before. The FTC states that the number of reports was not the main reason for the growth, but rather a larger share of reporting consumers who actually lost money. In the same overview, impersonation is again mentioned as one of the most common types of reported fraud, while online channels played a major role in total losses.
Although U.S. data cannot simply be applied to every market, they clearly show the direction of travel. Digital scams are becoming more profitable, more organized and more technically convincing. Athletes, musicians, influencers and other public figures are particularly exposed because their identity has market value. Their name can be used to attack them personally, but also to commit fraud against fans, followers, sponsors or business partners.
The consequences are not only financial
Financial losses are often the most visible part of such cases, but they are not the only harm. Access to private accounts can lead to leaks of intimate photographs, blackmail, reputational damage, psychological pressure and problems in professional relationships. If business messages are compromised, the consequences can include contract negotiations, sponsorship arrangements and confidential medical or legal information. In sport, where reputation and focus have direct career value, such attacks can have a long-lasting effect.
Cases in which fake sexual or romantic identities are used are particularly sensitive because perpetrators count on shame, fear of publicity and victims' reluctance to report the event. For that reason, the real number of incidents may be significantly higher than officially recorded. Security experts often warn that precisely this lack of reporting enables perpetrators to continue using the same methods against new targets.
In the case announced by the U.S. Department of Justice, the allegations of human trafficking and secret recording add further gravity. They show that digital fraud can escalate into physical exploitation and blackmail of several people at the same time. The victims of such schemes are not only those whose data were stolen, but also people who were drawn through manipulation or threats into meetings, recordings or other acts under false assumptions.
What experts recommend to public figures and their teams
Basic protection begins with the assumption that every unexpected contact must be verified through another channel. If a message allegedly comes from a well-known person, technology support, a bank, an agent or a sponsor, the identity should be confirmed through an official number, a known email address or direct contact that was not obtained in the same suspicious message. Entering passwords and security codes through links sent in private messages should be particularly avoided.
For athletes and other public figures, it is important to use multi-factor authentication, but also to understand its limitations. One-time verification codes must not be shared with anyone, not even with a person claiming to be from customer support. Cloud accounts, email and messaging applications should have strong, unique passwords, and account recovery must be configured so that an attacker cannot easily take control through a secondary address or phone number.
Teams working with athletes should have clear rules for verifying financial requests, changing payment details, sending sensitive documents and opening links. Family members and assistants should also be included in security education because attacks often target the weakest link, not necessarily the best-known person. In practice, this means less reliance on improvised messages and more verifiable procedures, especially when it comes to money, private photographs, travel documents or access to devices.
The scam industry follows the sports industry
The growth of the sports market, increasingly larger contracts, the global popularity of competitions and the constant presence of athletes on social networks have created an environment in which criminals can quickly test new methods. Fake profiles are no longer just annoying attempts to scam fans, but part of a broader system that uses data, psychology and technology. When public visibility is combined with personal wealth and fast digital communication, athletes become targets comparable to executives of large companies.
The case from Georgia shows how a single scam can simultaneously include impersonation, phishing, theft of login credentials, misuse of sexual content and allegations of human trafficking. Broader FBI and FTC data confirm that such methods are developing during a period of record reported losses from internet crime and consumer fraud. That is why the question is no longer only whether an individual athlete can protect himself from a suspicious message, but whether clubs, leagues, agents and families can establish a security culture that matches the level of risk.
Sources:
- The Guardian – report on the rise of scams targeting athletes, including phishing, impersonation and estimates of the financial scale of such attacks (link)
- U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Georgia – statement on the indictment against Kwamaine Jerell Ford for allegedly targeting professional athletes, computer fraud, identity theft and human trafficking (link)
- U.S. Department of Justice, Northern District of Georgia – earlier statement on Ford's conviction for hacking Apple accounts of professional athletes and musicians (link)
- FBI – statement on the 2024 IC3 annual report and reported losses from internet crime (link)
- Federal Trade Commission – data on reported consumer losses due to fraud in 2024 (link)
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – warning on the use of generative artificial intelligence in scams and impersonation (link)
- FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center – warning on AI-generated messages and impersonation of senior officials, relevant to the broader context of deepfake scams (link)