Frustrated by stories of online scammers targeting their devoted fans, Hallmark Channel and its top stars are taking a stand. On August 1, 2025, the network issued a warning via social media to fans.
“Our Hallmark stars will never contact you directly for any reason,” the post said. “To stay connected, please follow their official social handles, avoid any engagement with imposter accounts, and report any scams to Facebook/Instagram. We love & appreciate your support!”
Many stars have shared the post, but one recently took matters into his own hands. The beloved actor, who asked to remain anonymous for this story (so we’ll call him “Nick”), noticed an uptick in online scammers impersonating him during the first half of 2025. So he set up a fake Instagram account to pose as a Hallmark fan (we’ll call her “Sarah”), hoping to learn the scammers’ intentions and strategies.
No matter how many times Nick and his colleagues have reminded fans they’ll never reach out personally on social media or ask for money, he told EntertainmentNow, “the small number who get taken advantage of, who think it’s really us, is still too many.”
Hallmark Channel Actor Got an Apology From Scammer He Engaged With Undercover
EntertainmentNow/GettyHallmark fans aren’t the only ones being targeted. In a July exposé, The Hollywood Reporter reported on a woman who lost $100,000 to a man convincingly posing as Kevin Costner. In January, multiple European outlets reported on a Brad Pitt fan who was swindled out of $800,000.
In most cases, the interactions start similarly, with an impersonator thanking a fan for their dedication and support, and then asking to connect privately. This was the case with Nick and the fan he was pretending to be, Sarah.
When Sarah left a couple of comments on Instagram posts featuring Nick, the imposter quickly engaged, inviting Sarah to chat via private messages. They exchanged small talk about where they were from and which of Nick’s movies she loved. Then, the scammer pretending to be Nick suggested that he and Sarah connect more privately via WhatsApp. They kept messaging each other periodically “for a couple weeks,” Nick told EntertainmentNow.
When the fraudster eventually asked for money, Sarah replied that it seemed “weird” that a Hallmark star would need money, so she asked for a photo as proof it was really Nick.
“It was, like, a photo of me from online,” Nick told EntertainmentNow. “It got to the point where I then got him on a live FaceTime chat, and it was a gentleman who quickly turned it off — but I saw him.”
“I told him, ‘Tell me now who you are, because I want you to know that I actually know (Nick),” he recalled. “And then it turned into a long thing with him saying, ‘I’m really sorry that I do this.'”
Nick said the scammer told him he lived in Sudan, was “hoping to pay for an education,” and learned how to impersonate stars via an online group that described the process as an easy means of income.
“It was really weird, because I was super angry,” Nick told EntertainmentNow, “but then I also had this tiny bit of empathy for the guy. But there are so many of these scammers out there, it adds up and it takes advantage of people when you’re just in your house, enjoying Hallmark movies, feeling like it’s exciting to think one of us just reached out to you.”
Nick knows he can’t go after each scammer one-by-one, and has tried to block countless people pretending to be him, but it can feel like a losing battle. So he’s hoping that by sharing his experience, more fans will be aware of how the scams often work and what to watch out for.
Tyler Hynes Urges His Hallmark Channel Fans to Be More Aware of Scammers, Too
After Hallmark Channel issued its warning to fans on August 1, many stars shared the post in their Instagram Stories to spread the word, including Ashley Williams, Lacey Chabert, Taylor Cole, Benjamin Ayres, and Nikki DeLoach.
Dan Jeannotte, who alerted his fans in June to a scammer posing as him and asking for money, shared Hallmark’s post in his Stories, too, and added, “A lot of actors are being impersonated online by scammers. Me included. Stay safe and stay smart out there.”
Tyler Hynes created his own warning for fans, posting a photo of himself with bold writing that said, “Please, Beware of scammers. Please, never send anyone money. Please, look after the vulnerable. Please, use this to show others that who you THINK you are talking to is not me or others actors…”
While many followers were grateful for the reminder, one person left a heartbreaking reply to Hynes’ post, reaching out to fellow fans by writing, “I just want to cry. I’ve shelled out over $2200 thinking I was talking with Ty and his management for a badge!”
According to The Hollywood Reporter, over 400 famous artists, from actress Scarlett Johannsen to music icon Common, have urged Congress to sign the No Fakes Act, designed to protect artists’ voices, likenesses, and images from being used and disseminated by unauthorized AI-generated deep fakes.
As for how these scammers succeed, elder fraud expert Marti DeLiema, an assistant professor at the University of Minnesota’s School of Social Work, told The Hollywood Reporter, “The vast majority of people would be highly skeptical that this really famous person is responding to them. But you don’t need to get everybody. You cast your net broadly, see who falls into it, work really hard to build trust and hope that you can move from them just responding to them being willing to give you money. And then you up the ante.”
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Hallmark Channel Star Goes Undercover, Standing Up to Scammers Targeting Fans (EXCLUSIVE)