Blinded by fame, a woman bragged about dating a celebrity, and was scammed out of a six-figure sum by Martin Henderson

The alleged scammer preyed on the woman after she posted on a “Virgin River” fan page, first impersonating Henderson’s manager, then Henderson himself.

A Virgin River fan was allegedly conned out of $375K by a scammer impersonating the series’ star Martin Henderson over two years and got her to move to New Zealand, according to a new report by the New Zealand Herald.

Speaking confidentially under the pseudonym Lea, the victim claims in the Feb. 7 story that she was contacted by an individual claiming to be Henderson’s agent after posting on a Virgin River fan page. That agent then connected her with an individual claiming to be Henderson. She says the two carried on a long-distance relationship for two years that led to substantial financial losses before the scam was revealed.

Reps for Henderson and Netflix did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for comment.

The woman says she spoke to the individual claiming to be Henderson every day. “We hit it off immediately and talked about favorite foods and common interests,” she explained. The scammer used AI to generate voice messages imitating Henderson’s voice, responding in kind to her emotional confidences and always following up with requests for money.

Among the purchases the woman made on “Henderson’s” behalf were $10K for a “prison bailout,” $12K in gift cards, 25 Macbooks to “set up a new business,” several $5K bitcoin transfers, $56K on fake invoices for shipping a box of valuables that didn’t actually exist, and chartering a private jet out of South Africa to the tune of $30K.

Eventually, a friend sent the victim another Herald article that reported Henderson in a location that did not match the current location “Henderson” had given her. “I thought, ‘What is Martin doing in New Zealand in Matakana on a bike rally when he told me he was lying in a hospital bed in Johannesburg after a mild heart attack,'” she said.

Martin Henderson in ‘Virgin River’.

The Henderson scam follows in the footsteps of January’s Brad Pitt scam, in which a French woman lost a reported $850K after falling prey to a con artist employing similar tactics of sending AI-generated images and fake messages from the Meet Joe Black star. Spanish officials warned the previous September that five people had been arrested on accusations they scammed two women out of $350K by impersonating Pitt.

“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities, and this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence,” a spokesperson for Pitt told EW in Sept.

Henderson has starred on all six seasons of the Netflix romantic drama, which premiered in 2019. He plays Jack Sheridan, a former marine and the current owner of a restaurant/bar in the fictional Northern California town.

Henderson’s was the last face fans saw on the dramatic season six finale in December. Showrunner Patrick Sean Smith told EW that not even Henderson knows what his character saw to behind Charmaine’s (Lauren Hammersley) door to make him look so shocked in that cliffhanger last shot, calling it “a testament to his incredible talent that he was able to create many possible scenarios of what he was seeing on the other side of that door.”