Two years after deactivating his Instagram account, longtime Hallmark Channel star Dan Jeannotte has returned with a purpose. On May 6, 2025, the Canadian actor posted a video on the app to explain that an online scammer has been operating a fraudulent Instagram account in his name, preying on fans and taking their money.
“Yup, someone’s been impersonating me on Instagram,” he wrote in the caption, joking that the person is “not even doing it well, if you ask me.” Asking fans to report the fraud, who has racked up nearly 10,000 followers via a fake Instagram account, Jeannotte wrote, “Thanks for doing your part to FIGHT FOR THE TRUTH.”
Dan Jeannotte Says Instagram Account’s ‘Inappropriate’ Interactions With Fans is ‘Deeply Disturbing’
In the video Jeannotte posted from Montreal, he addressed fans about the situation after trying for the last week to get Meta to shut down the fraudulent account. From April 27 to 29, he tweeted multiple screenshots of the fake “officiallydanjeannotte” account, writing, “Creeps, asking for money, it’s gross & @instagram is not fixing it.”
In one tweet, he joked of the fake account’s bio, “Why on earth would I label myself ‘BEST DAD’ & ‘FILMMAKER’ when I’m just an OK dad & NOT A FILMMAKER?! Are they trying to flatter me?”
Some fans tweeted back that they tried to report the fraudulent account. But because Jeannotte was not active on Instagram at the time, Meta refused to take action, claiming the account was not violating standards, which led to him re-joining Instagram.
In his new video, the “All I Need For Christmas” star quipped, “So, you know what’s weird about the internet? Everything. But also, people can pretend to be you!”
“I have got an impersonator on Instagram,” he continued. “They have been pretending to be me, I guess, since I deleted my account a couple years ago. It’s gotten out of hand, they’ve got a bunch of followers now. So, I came back onto Instagram to, you know, set the record straight.”
The “Good Witch” alum added that the scammer has “changed their name a couple times in the last few weeks as I’ve been calling them out. But ‘Officially Dan Jeannotte’ is NOT me.”
“It a lame thing to have to talk about, but this person is a bad person,” Jeannotte continued. “They’ve been reaching out to fans and being inappropriate with them, and then trying to get money out of them. If that’s happened to you, I’m so sorry. The fact that it’s happening under my name is really, deeply disturbing.”
Now that he’s back on Instagram, he’s hoping fans will join his real account and report the fake one, telling them, “Thank you for your time and for believing me when I say that I am me!”
Many Hallmark Stars Have Cautioned Fans to Be Wary of Their Online Impersonators
HallmarkHallmark stars have been plagued by scammers impersonating them online for years, cleverly copying their posts, using their images, and boldly trying to engage one-on-one with fans.
In April, just two weeks after actor Brennan Elliott lost his wife, the “His & Hers” star alerted fans that someone was trying to “profit off” her death on Facebook, where he does not have an account. EntertainmentNow found over 30 Facebook accounts pretending to be Elliott, including one with over 10,000 followers.
In an Instagram post on April 3, Elliott warned fans, “I wanted to post something and make it very clear! Anybody following or in any interaction on Facebook with me is dealing with an imposter!!! I do not have Facebook and never have. This POS person is acting as if he or she is me and trying to profit off of my families situation with my wife’s death.”
On March 15, “Hannah Swensen Mysteries” star Victor Webster posted on Instagram that he’d just “blocked about 50 fake accounts,” alerting fans that “there are plenty of people pretending to be my publicist or manager or assistant etc. I can only do so much, people have to be savvy to this this day and age.” A month later, Webster announced he was taking a social media hiatus.
On March 28, actress Catherine Bell posted a guide to her official social media accounts in an effort to keep fans from following her impersonators.
Hallmark maintains a list of official social media profiles to help fans ensure they’re following real accounts and not fake ones.
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Hallmark Star Dan Jeannotte Returns to Instagram to ‘Fight For the Truth’