
A woman in Lafayette, Louisiana was fully convinced she was in a purely online relationship with Tesla CEO Elon Musk. His busy job, constant traveling, and multiple baby mamas could help make it convincing. Those factors are what made Hilda Holland’s dear friend think it was real.
She told KLFY reporters her friend met the scammer posing as Musk through Threads, a branch of Instagram – owned by Meta.
“She said, ‘I seen Elon talking to me. I’ve talked to him on, you know, Facetime,’” Holland said of her unnamed friend. “I said, ‘They can do anything with a computer.’”
When reporters investigated, they discovered a scammer was utilizing a deep-fake. Deep fakes can be convincing AI-generated animated images, utilizing the internet’s archive to find images and voice samples.
Holland’s friend was invested. So invested, in fact, that the scammer posing as Musk would ask her to pay him via gift cards, and she’d do it. To date, she’s spent $60,000 on the Musk impersonator.
“It got to where Home Depot would not sell her any more cards,” said Holland. “They knew it was a scam going on, and so she drives from Alexandria to Opelousas to Lafayette to buy all these cards.”
The scammer said they’d give her a “free” Tesla
Holland’s friend said she kept paying the scammer because “Musk” promised to give her a free EV. They even said thousands of dollars were supposed to be sent through the mail but kept getting lost. At one point, she ended up responsible for the lost check.
“Elon Musk is supposed to be giving her a Tesla car, supposed to be sending her thousands of dollars in by FedEx,” she said. “And the FedEx truck had a wreck. She had to pay $1,500 for the damage to a FedEx truck. He was like, ‘I can’t come now because I’m at FedEx, and they won’t turn things loose till you send $1,600.’”
At one point, the scammer was trying to get Holland’s friend to pay to buy his child a pizza.
Authorities say they can’t recover the money, either
Because Holland’s friend is voluntarily sending the money through gift cards and wire transfers, there’s no way for the funds to be recovered.
Holland continues to pray that her friend eventually realizes she’s being scammed, though she’s worried her friend would be embarrassed due to the romantic nature of the “relationship.”
Holland’s friend isn’t the only person to be scammed by a Musk impersonator.
Jeffrey Arthur Moynihan Jr. from Florida was arrested in November of 2024 for impersonating Musk and scamming a 74-year-old woman. As Musk, he promised her a $55 million return on her $600,000, according to WFAA.