36 minutes | Wednesday, 11 November 2026
The Debrief is joined by Leslie Pickett, a Louisiana mother and lifelong Bon Jovi fan, to tell the story of an AI-powered romance scam that cost her more than $10,000 and nearly her home. In late 2024, a comment on Jon Bon Jovi’s Instagram was answered within minutes by an account that looked like his. Over the following months, the impersonator messaged her day and night, sent flowers to her door and used AI-generated videos that seemed to show the singer saying her name, before finally asking for money for a meet-and-greet. Leslie takes us inside how it all felt so real, the moment she realised something was wrong, and how journalist Mariana van Zeller’s team traced the messages to Nigeria for the National Geographic documentary Super Scam Me.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.