Here’s nothing to sing about: Taylor Swift topped a recent list of the most dangerous celebrity deepfakes, making the pop star the most impersonated and exploited star in online scams.
Released Friday, McAfee’s 2025 Most Dangerous Celebrity: Deepfake Deception List exposes how cybercriminals use famous names and their likenesses to trick people into falling for scams. The research showed 72% of Americans have seen fake celebrity or influencer endorsements, and 39% have clicked on one, shared personal details, with 10% losing money, with an average loss of $525.
McAfee, which provides cybersecurity services, said cybercriminals cash in by cloning voices, faces, and even social posts to sell fake products, pushing bogus giveaways, and running too-good-to-be-true investment or “crypto plays” that look convincing.
And Swifties beware: In 2025, following a viral Le Creuset cookware giveaway hoax that misused her image, scammers targeted Taylor Swift fans by cloning her voice, face and social posts to push fake merchandise and bogus giveaways. After news of Ms. Swift’s engagement to Travis Kelce, scammers ramped up phony “limited-edition” merchandise offers and “leaked” deepfake content, baiting so-called Swifties with headline-driven click-to-buy scams. Meanwhile, xAI’s Grok Imagine tool could generate sexually explicit deepfakes resembling Ms. Swift using its “spicy” mode, showing how easily bad actors can fabricate realistic, harmful imagery to deceive fans, McAfee said in a statement.
Other celebs that made the list, in order and after Ms. Swift, include Scarlett Johansson, Jenna Ortega, Sydney Sweeney, Tom Cruise, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Sabrina Carpenter, LeBron James, Kim Kardashian and Zendaya.