McAfee’s 2025 list of the stars whose likenesses are most exploited by scammers: Most Dangerous Celebrities | Deepfake Deception List (US)
McAfee’s 2025 list of the influencers whose likenesses are most exploited by scammers: Most Dangerous Influencers | Deepfake Deception List (global)
From Taylor Swift to Pokimane, scammers are hijacking fans’ trust to push fake endorsements, giveaways, and AI-driven deepfakes. McAfee’s latest research reveals who’s most impersonated, and how people can fight back with awareness and technology.
Key Highlights:
Taylor Swift tops McAfee’s 2025 Most Dangerous Celebrity: Deepfake Deception List, making her the most impersonated and exploited star in online scams.
McAfee introduces its first Influencer Deepfake Deception List, led by YouTuber and streamer, Pokimane.
72% of Americans have seen fake celebrity or influencer endorsements; 39% have clicked on one; 10% lost money, averaging $525 in losses.
SAN JOSE, Calif., November 13, 2025–(BUSINESS WIRE)–McAfee today released its annual Most Dangerous Celebrity: Deepfake Deception List, exposing how cybercriminals use famous names and their likenesses to trick people into falling for scams. This year, Taylor Swift ranks #1 as the most impersonated and exploited celebrity, while Pokimane leads the influencer list – demonstrating how scammers target both global icons and online creators to push fake endorsements, giveaways, and AI-driven deepfakes.
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These scams work because cybercriminals cash in on the trust fans place in their favorite stars. They clone voices, faces, and even social posts to sell fake products, push bogus giveaways, and run too-good-to-be-true investment or crypto plays that look convincing.
In 2025, following a viral Le Creuset cookware giveaway hoax that misused her image, scammers targeted Taylor Swift fans by cloning her voice, face, and social posts to push fake merchandise and bogus giveaways. After news of Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, scammers ramped up phony “limited-edition” merchandise offers and “leaked” deepfake content, baiting Swifties with headline-driven click-to-buy scams. At the same time, xAI’s new Grok Imagine tool could generate sexually explicit deepfakes resembling Swift using its “spicy” mode1, showing how easily bad actors can fabricate realistic, harmful imagery to deceive fans.
McAfee’s research shows 72% of Americans have seen fake celebrity or influencer endorsements, 39% have clicked on one, and 10% lost money, with average losses of $525, or shared personal details.
“Celebrity and influencer culture has always shaped what people buy, but now it’s influencing how criminals run their scams,” said Stephanie Fried, Chief Marketing Officer at McAfee. “Our lists show how scammers exploit that influence, and our research reveals that 39% of people who clicked on fake celebrity or influencer content lost money or personal information. By naming the stars whose likeness is most often misused, we hope to help fans recognize the red flags and pair that vigilance with AI-powered tools like McAfee’s Scam Detector to confirm what’s real or fake.”
To help consumers fight back, McAfee combines education with AI-powered tools like McAfee’s Scam Detector, which analyzes text, email, and video content to flag potential fakes – including deepfakes – and phishing attempts before they cause harm. As AI-generated media grows more convincing, these tools give people a way to verify what’s real before they click, share, or buy.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Celebrities | Deepfake Deception List (2025): U.S.
Taylor Swift
Scarlett Johansson
Jenna Ortega
Sydney Sweeney
Tom Cruise
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Sabrina Carpenter
LeBron James
Kim Kardashian
Zendaya
Hollywood celebrities aren’t the only public personalities scammers rely on. Influencers are now central to online culture and scammers know it. 44% of Americans have seen fake or AI-generated influencer endorsements, from giveaways and skincare promotions to crypto schemes and “must-have” tech gadgets.
Unfortunately, only 29% of people feel very confident about spotting deepfakes, while 21% say they have low confidence in doing so — a gap that scammers exploit.
To grow awareness of this threat, McAfee launched its first-ever Influencer Deepfake Deception List, with Pokimane, a top streamer and gaming content creator, ranked #1, reflecting how often her likeness is misused to fool fans. Bad actors have repeatedly exploited her image and name: from widely reported non-consensual deepfake porn incidents that sparked industry-wide scrutiny2 to a high-profile “engagement” catfishing hoax where a streamer claimed a relationship with a fake Pokimane and lost thousands of dollars3 4.
Together, these episodes show how scammers weaponize familiar creators with AI-generated faces, voices, and look-alike posts to run impersonation, romance, and giveaway scams. Pokimane has been vocal about the harm this causes and has urged platforms and policymakers to strengthen safeguards, underscoring why public awareness and AI-powered detection tools are essential for fans to tell real from fake.
Top 10 Most Dangerous Influencers (2025): Global
Pokimane
MrBeast
Karina
QTCinderella
Brooke Monk
helydia
Léna Situations
Madison Beer
Cally Jane
Vicky Pattison
McAfee’s research revealed consumers are seeing fake promotions across the board. Scammers are pushing free giveaways (36%), weight-loss products (30%), skincare (27%), crypto schemes (26%), and tech gadgets (25%). They may look harmless at first, but the toll is real: nearly 1 in 10 victims lose money, averaging $525 per loss.
The findings paint a clear picture: scammers are exploiting trust in celebrities and influencers at every turn and protecting consumers has never been more critical. Tools like McAfee’s Scam Detector help people spot these risky links and fake endorsements before they cause harm.
Methodology
Celebrity and Influencer List
McAfee’s Celebrity Deepfake Deception List and Influencer Deepfake Deception List are based on a weighted scoring system combining three inputs: social activity, search activity, and media reports. Each factor is normalized using banded scoring to reduce skew from outliers and rolled into a final score identifying the celebrities and influencers most likely to be encountered in deepfake content online.
These lists were built based on a multi-source analysis of tens of thousands of validated search signals, social conversations, and credible media reports across multiple platforms and regions. This included:
Social Activity – Mentions and engagement tied to deepfakes across major public platforms, with spikes linked to trending events, scams, and cultural moments.
Search Activity – Verified queries indicating demand for deepfake content, used as a proxy for exposure rather than intent alone.
Media Reports – Coverage from trusted outlets confirming incidents of deepfake misuse.
The existence of deepfake content for each individual was validated, to eliminate results based solely on search or speculation.
Consumer Research
A McAfee survey, which focused on the topic of scams and the impact of these scams on consumers, was conducted online in August 2025. 8,600 adults in Australia, France, Germany, India, Japan, and the US and UK, age 18+, participated in the study. Weighted rankings were calculated using a standard points model.
About McAfee
McAfee Corp. is a global leader in online protection for consumers. Focused on protecting people in an always-online world, McAfee’s solutions adapt to user needs, empowering individuals and families with secure, intuitive tools. For more information, visit www.mcafee.com.
