14 Celebrities Who Got Scammed Worse Than Your Grandma
If Cher can lose hundreds of thousands of dollars to a crooked spa owner, it can happen to any of us.
Mark Zuckerberg
He got his Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest accounts hacked because his password was shittier than his AR glasses. The hackers posted, “You were in Linkedin Database with the password ‘dadada’!”
Kiefer Sutherland
He lost almost $1 million on a bad cow deal. Investor Michael Wayne Carr convinced him to fork over $869,000 to buy steers from Mexico, then flip them for a profit in the U.S., but Carr pocketed the money instead.
Sting
He got duped out of almost $8 million over the course of 15 years, after bringing his accountant Keith Moore on as his financial advisor. Moore opened more than 100 secret bank accounts and invested Sting’s money in endeavors like an (apparently successful) Indian restaurant chain in Australia.
Billy Joel
He made the mistake of hiring his former brother-in-law, Frank Weber, as his manager. By 1989, Joel realized that Weber had stolen a big slice of his pie and made up to $90 million investing it. A long and expensive lawsuit saw Joel wrestle a mere $8 million back.
Nev Schulman
He popularized the term “catfish” with his documentary about being duped by an online imposter, and went on to make a popular MTV show about the phenomenon. Even after all that, he was caught up in a catfish situation again, this time by his social media manager, who had allegedly commandeered his Twitter account and used it to “date” a bunch of different people.
The ‘Skin Expert to the Stars’ Strikes Again
Beverly Hills spa owner Maria Gabriela Hashemipour stole the credit card information of her famous clients and went to town with personal purchases. She nabbed about $1 million total from Liv Tyler, Anne Hathaway, Cher and more.
Scarlett Johansson
Not only was she one of 50 victims of a high-profile scammer/nude leaker, she’s also been used as bait to manipulate countless other hapless dorks on the internet. McAfee's U.S. Celebrity Hacker Hotlist had her as number one in 2024, meaning her name and likeness were used more than any other celebrity’s on fake ads and endorsements.
Uma Thurman
She wasn’t the only celebrity to get financially decimated by Kenneth Starr’s scheme, but she reportedly burst into his office and refused to leave until he paid back her $1 million.
Ben Stiller
Stiller considered himself a “hip, savvy investor,” but he wound up one of several celebrity victims of manager and financial planner Dana Giacchetto, who skimmed $250,000 from Stiller and about $10 million from other famous folks.
Jack Nicholson
Nicholson threw about $600,000 at a trusted art dealer to diversify his portfolio, but the guy later turned around and sold off Nicholson’s art (and an Aston Martin they co-owned, which sounds like a bad idea), pocketing about $2.5 million from Jack and other clients before he was caught.
Kevin Bacon
Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick sunk $100 million to all-time Ponzi GOAT Bernie Madoff in 2009. Commenting on the ordeal, Bacon said, “It sucked.”
John McEnroe
He lost $2 million in a scheme that sounds like a timeshare, but for precious art. Artist and art dealer Lawrence Salander expunged about $88 million from celebrity pockets by getting rich dorks to buy shares of artwork.
Robert De Niro
De Niro’s father was a painter, and after his death, none other than art-thief-to-the-stars Lawrence Salander offered to help sell off a dozen of his works. He walked away with $1 million, which he used to pay down other debts.
Tiger Woods
A guy was able to track down Woods’ social security number, and together with his real name (Eldrick T. Woods), was able to get a driver’s license in Woods’ name. Almost incidentally, the guy went on a relatively mundane $17,000 shopping spree. He was later sentenced to 200 years in prison (mainly for the forging government documents part).