OVER DEZE AFLEVERING
Somewhere out there, Keanu Reeves is desperately in love with you. So is Jason Statham. And a brave peacekeeping soldier who just needs a few gift cards to get home.
Of course, none of them are real. Keanu Reeves isn’t even on social media. But that hasn’t stopped scammers from impersonating him again and again.
My guest today has had more of these online romances than anyone alive. Becky Holmes joined Twitter during lockdown, started stringing scammers along for laughs, and built a following of more than a hundred thousand people under the name Death to Spinach. Then victims began reaching out, people who’d lost their savings, their friendships, and sometimes far more. And the joke turned into a mission.
Her book, Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud, is laugh-out-loud funny and heartbreaking, often on the same page. It takes on the scammers, the scripts and the shame that keeps victims silent. Her follow-up, The Future of Fraud, came out this spring.
Chapter Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
2:37 Why Keanu Reeves and other celebrities are impersonated
4:16 How celebrity fraudsters persuade victims to send money
8:28 Scam-baiting, scripted responses, and an absurd Brad Pitt exchange
12:14 Platform responsibility and the UK reimbursement debate
14:56 Victim stories: financial ruin, isolation, and secrecy
19:02 Changing the language around fraud victims
21:23 Male victims, sextortion, and underreporting
23:28 The harm caused by stolen identities and images
27:12 Scam networks as a professional industry
Resources & Links:
Rob Leathern (https://www.linkedin.com/in/leathern/)
Keanu Reeves Is Not in Love With You: The Murky World of Online Romance Fraud
(https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7SHMNB4)
The Future of Fraud (https://www.amazon.com/Future-Fraud-FUTURES-Becky-Holmes-ebook/dp/B0FJD3WBJR/ref=books_amazonstores_desktop_nis_default)
Becky Holmes on X (https://x.com/deathtospinach?lang=en)
