The Great AI Celebrity Podcast Scam

Nothing is sacred anymore. Not even Good Hang With Amy Poehler.

The scammers have officially come for the last frontier to ruin—celebrity podcasting. According to a Tuesday report from The Hollywood Reporter, some industry folks are being tricked into thinking they’ve been booked for celebrity podcasts, only to discover themselves as victims of an elaborate AI scam.

This particular ruse requires prey with some obscure celebrity status—or someone who might quickly agree to appear on a major podcast. Think, eager and gullible D-lister. The report highlights two specific victims: Broadway actor and radio host Seth Rudetsky, and comedy writer Bruce Vilanch. How it happened for Rudetsky, he told the outlet, was that he received word from comedian Nikki Glaser’s team, inviting him to appear on her pod (even offering him $4,000 for the spot). It (allegedly) seemed legit: The manager had highlighted Rudetsky’s recent Broadway cruise and “his work with Sara Bareilles.” He accepted.

“Wow,” he remembers thinking. “Nikki Glaser loves my Broadway cruise.”

Famous last words. Before he could talk to Glaser, he had to speak with her manager over Zoom, who essentially manipulated him into handing over his Facebook permissions, thereby compromising his account.

Rudetsky said he received a similarly “legit” invitation from Good Hang, but knowing Poehler in real life, he asked her if it was real. She told him no, that she had not invited him to be on the podcast. (I’m sure that wasn’t awkward…)

The Ankler recently ranked Poehler’s podcast among the top “17 Press Stops Publicists Are Fighting Over,” so while I’d like to give Rudestky the benefit of the doubt here, I’m struggling to understand where he fits among the roster of Matt Damon, Rosie O’Donnell, and John Cena. But I digress…

Vilanch’s scam experience involved an invitation to appear on NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross. He told THR that “Terry” came right out and asked him for money (because it’s a nonprofit, of course), and he obliged, arguing that “It felt real.” But when he logged on for the interview, he was met with a man named Mike, not Terry Gross.

Once privy to the fact that he was being scammed, Vilanch wrote back, “Whoever you are, I hope you enjoy the paltry sum that I sent.”

While in hindsight it might read a tad obvious that these guys were being lured into swindlings, the ploys are indeed getting increasingly sophisticated (with special thanks to AI). So, all this is to say that if you receive communications from NikkiGlaserManager at Gmail, be warned. It probably isn’t her.

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