In the age of AI and deepfakes, scams are a regular occurrence. Only recently, LIV golfer Graeme McDowell shared a success story of how crypto trading has enabled him to win a Tesla Cybertruck. But just as the fans were getting excited about McDowell’s trading prowess, the LIV Golfer came forward and apologized. Turns out, his account was hacked!

“Apologies for the crypto cyber truck tweet that came from my account. I got hacked. Be careful of suspicious DMs asking you to vote on podcasts or the like. Got one from one of my friends that seemed legit,” wrote McDowell in one of his recent X posts. 

Initially, it seemed like McDowell was boasting about his crypto trading skills. Expressing pride at the achievement, the golfer credited his ‘coach,’ an account going by the name, ‘CC_ethMariana’. 

“Lowkey proud of this one. Been locked in with crypto for a while, stayed consistent, and today it paid off big Just picked up a brand-new Tesla Cybertruck, Huge appreciation to by coach @CC_ethMariana for the guidance and motivation this journey is only getting started,” McDowell’s earlier tweet read. 

With 621,000 followers on his account, the impact of his post could have been monumental. Thankfully, he immediately caught the anomaly in his account and deleted the post. 

Surprisingly, McDowell is not the only person affected by the recent social media scam.  X user Nosferatu, who is popular for posting OWGR rankings on X, had posted a similar tweet. Surprisingly, both posts had a similar pattern. In both cases, the name of the coach who was given credit was the same. 

And if this was not concerning enough, Golf Digest’s Jamie Kennedy also suffered a similar fate. He was surprised to see himself locked out of his X profile. Taking to his thread’s account immediately, Kennedy noted how he got an email late January informing him of a change in his email address, which was not initiated by him. 

As Kennedy contacted Twitter Support to get the issue resolved, he found out that his account name had been changed to ‘CEO TESLA.’ His username and display picture were also altered. Meanwhile, catfishing scams have recently wreaked havoc on the LPGA tour. 

Everything that glitters online isn’t gold

With the recent antics from fraudsters, the golfing community and fans have been dealing with a concerning scenario. A few months back, The Athletic created an Instagram account to conduct a survey. They created the account under the name of Rodney, pretending to be a 62-year-old golf fan. The survey account was created under the username ‘@lpgafanatic6512’. 

That account followed verified accounts for female golfers alongside a few other accounts that appeared official. Within just minutes, @lpgafanatic6512 received a text from an account that appeared to be of Nelly Korda’s.

“Hi, handsomeface, i know this is like a dream to you. Thank you for being a fan”, read the text. 

The survey was conducted to get an idea of how catfishing has been impacting the realm of this sport. These situations are becoming increasingly worrisome, especially for fans and social media users who struggle to tell what’s real from what’s fabricated.

Reflecting on this scenario, the World’s No. 1 female golfer stated, “It’s been taken out of my hands being able to communicate freely with fans.” Korda further explained, “Because I don’t really know their intentions.”

In another instance, scammers used Amanda Balionis’s name to siphon money off to their bank accounts under the guise of crowdfunding for charity.

Several fans have turned out to be the victims of online scams over social media. Fans, who were convinced that they were conversing with the real athletes, later blamed the golfers after falling into traps of fraudulent activities.

And it’s not just happening masked behind the name of Nelly Korda. Charley Hull, Lexi Thompson, Michelle Wie West, Morgan Pressel, Jennifer Kupcho, Hannah Gregg, and Korda all have publicly posted warnings regarding such incidents to make sure that their followers are safe. Golf influencers Paige Spiranac and Hailey Ostrom, too, have dealt with such scenarios of online scams and shared their concerns.