A Toronto-based OnlyFans creator says fraudsters have built out hundreds of fake accounts impersonating her to con her fans out of money, in some cases draining life savings.
CeCe Rose, 27, who has more than 2.2 million Instagram followers and earns millions of dollars a year on OnlyFans, says she now employs security teams whose job is to find and take down accounts pretending to be her.
“It’s gotten so bad, to the point that just the other day, my team found 371 fake accounts,” Rose told the New York Post on Thursday.
She says the impersonators lure her followers off mainstream platforms like Instagram and TikTok and onto messaging apps such as Telegram, Zangi and WhatsApp, where they build fake relationships with victims before asking for money.
“I’ve heard stories where somebody genuinely believed they were in a serious relationship with ‘me,’ including believing we were going to meet or have a future together one day,” she said.
Rose first learned of the scheme in 2023, when a fan messaged her on OnlyFans accusing her of stealing his money and ghosting him. One admirer later told her he lost $80,000 to an impersonator.
“He drained his bank account trying to support ‘my ambitions’ — the fake scammer’s ambitions or whatever story they were feeding to him,” Rose said. “And I imagine the stories I’m not hearing. They’re probably making more money than me.”
The US Federal Trade Commission reported that Americans lost $3.5 billion to imposter scams in 2025, but Rose says the scale of the operation targeting her specifically is “unfathomable” compared with what other creators in her circle experience.
She worries that advances in artificial intelligence will make these schemes more convincing and draw in more victims. Most of those who have come forward to her are older men, she said, though she suspects younger fans may also be targeted and simply too embarrassed to report it.
“I always make it clear they shouldn’t feel ashamed,” she said. “If somebody has spent months believing they’re building a genuine relationship, finding out the entire thing was fake can be devastating.”
Rose said her team has tracked down at least one person suspected of using her identity to defraud fans, and that case remains under investigation. She urged her followers to treat any request for money as a red flag.
“I won’t message you asking for money. That’s the most important thing: I will never come to you begging for anything,” she said.
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