A woman has shared her ‘traumatising’ experience of an AI romance scam that led her to believe she was in a relationship with Kevin Costner.
When Rachel*, 57, from Sussex, received a message from a person claiming to be the Hollywood star she thought it must be an imposter until she was sent convincing voice notes and video called him.
Rachel fell for ‘Kevin’ after the pair shared their life stories over messages, realistic lifelike voice notes, and video chats.
Having divorced her husband in 2005, Rachel was on the lookout for love. Likewise, the actual Yellowstone actor had filed for a divorce from Christine Baumgartner in May.
Following a series of failed relationships, Rachel, a respected medical practice owner, was ready to be swept off her feet. So when ‘Kevin’ reached out to her in July after she posted a comment on his official Instagram page, she was thrilled.
Rachel, however, was unaware of the sinister plot behind her romantic interest – a sophisticated con artist using Kevin Costner’s media outputs and artificial intelligence to create deepfake phone calls, voice notes, and video recordings resembling the star.
Rachel, a well-travelled woman, entered the conversation with slight trepidation, questioning why such a successful Hollywood actor would choose her.
But after receiving realistic voice notes form the bogus Kevin Costner, she was lured in. After all, she thought, how could it not be the real Kevin Costner when his ‘smoky’ voice is exactly the same as in his films.
‘I felt lucky he had noticed me amongst all the thousands of followers on his social media,’ Rachel said.
As time progressed, the AI imposter ramped up the romance levels, manufacturing feelings of love in Rachel, who believed she was experiencing genuine romance for the first time in her life.
Chatting on WhatsApp, messages would come through at all hours of the day, and ‘Kevin’ would tell Rachel how ‘special’ she was to him. Voice notes would be sent to Rachel frequently and the pair video called a handful of times.
‘At night, he would often leave messages wishing me sweet dreams; they felt wonderful to me,’ she added.
Just weeks after the messaging had started, the bogus relationship got more serious when Rachel received messages from ‘Kevin’s’ alleged friends and family.
Impersonations of Liam, Cayden, Lily, and Annie Costner reached out to Rachel via their so-called secondary social media accounts, informing Rachel of their ‘father’s’ intense feelings for her.
Rachel continued to take the messages at face value. Before she knew it, an AI imposter of ‘Kevin’s’ golfing friend, Josh Harper also reached out telling her how much ‘Kevin’ ‘appreciates’ her.
After conversations with ‘Kevin’s’ close friends and frequent voice notes, Rachel developed a powerful connection to the fraudster.
For three months, her days were filled with meaningful conversations. She would tell him about her work days and travelling plans, and ‘Kevin’ would share tales of his projects and films and inform her that he was currently working between Utah and Washington DC.
Rachel said: ‘He would also tell me how much his children meant to him. It made me feel loved, confident, very special, like a fairy tale. It gave me hope that we were going to make plans for our future. I lost weight with feelings of love sickness.’
Things took a turn when the con artist requested they chat on a different platform.
‘He started to mention that his management didn’t like him to talking to a fan, so he asked me to move to google chat and telegram so his management wouldn’t know we were talking.’
Kevin’s imposter later started to decline Rachel’s request to video chat, which triggered doubt in her mind.
‘I got a little suspicious with his reluctance to do video chats, the management excuse made me suspicious too.
‘He told me his lawyer and his management team had advised him not to talk to any woman,’ given the short space between his divorce with Christine Baumgartner and his new relationship.
Picking up on her reservations, ‘Kevin’ sent Rachel a copy of his passport to settle her doubts.
But in September, after a poor quality noisy video chat, the suspicion settled in Rachel’s mind when the fake Yellowstone actor asked for £3,000.
Rachel was told that given Kevin’s recent divorce settlement, his management were firmly against a new relationship.
His solution, therefore, was to pay £3,000 for a VIP membership from his management, which would allow a relationship to form.
Rachel said: ‘He asked for £3,000 plus dollars for VIP membership, which meant I would have complete access to him. I realised I have been lured into a trap and totally duped.’
As an academic with a flourishing social life, Rachel could not see how she had been vulnerable to a scam.
Rachel felt ‘traumatised’ by the experience and mourned the loss of the relationship like a genuine break-up.
She said: ‘The scam destroyed my confidence, [it] made me feel stupid and ashamed. I actually wanted to kill myself for a brief moment.
‘I couldn’t tell my family because of the embarrassment. It left me feeling vulnerable and unsafe, [because] I had shared details of my life.’
Since sharing personal information about her life, Rachel is terrified of riling up the scammer in the wrong way, which has meant she is still replying to his messages today.
‘I still get messages from fake Kevin Costner and fake Liam Costner every day. I just give brief answers hoping they will stop. I’m afraid to annoy the scammer.’
Now, Rachel has shared her story to raise awareness of the high level of sophistication that romance scams can entail, with video and voice note impersonations.
She wants to warn others to pay close attention to any unusual activity, whether their online romance partner is famous or not, with a poor-quality video call being a tell-tale sign.
‘Thousands of women are falling prey to these romantic and financial predators, and some are losing thousands of pounds,’ said Rachel.
As a career-driven down-to-earth woman, she did not consider herself susceptible to a romance scam, making her believe that it could happen to anyone.
By telling her story, Rachel hopes to save women worldwide from ‘the potential heartache, financial ruin, and potential suicide that I came close to.’
*Rachel’s name has been changed to protect her identity.