# I Almost Fell For a Fake Podcast Scam

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**Score: 65/100 · skim**

Ryan George (creator of *Pitch Meeting*) explains how he was targeted by a fake celebrity-podcast scam. Fraudsters sent flattering, personalized invitations, supposedly from big hosts, to get control of creators' verified Facebook pages. His main warning is that AI now makes this kind of tailored scam cheap and convincing, so anyone with an online presence, and not just celebrities, should be suspicious of flattering offers that seem too specific to be fake.

- **0:00-0:53** — **Cold open and setup.** Ryan opens with "celebrities in danger," then jokes that he's barely famous: people half-recognize him, and his IMDb StarMeter rank is around 74,000. That's why it seemed odd when big podcasts started inviting him, starting with an email asking him onto a Facebook Live episode of *Wild Ride* with Stephen "Steve-O" Glover.

- **0:53-2:13** — **Early red flags in the Steve-O email.** He plays up how flattered he was to hear from a *Jackass* star, but points out oddities. The email kept repeating that Stephen Glover is Steve-O, and the sender was a manager named "Jason Burke," which looked like a typo. Ryan jokes about a long family line of "Burke managers." These small errors are the first quiet hint that something is off.

- **2:13-3:06** — **A suspiciously well-researched Chelsea Handler invite.** A second email invited him onto Chelsea Handler's podcast. Ryan wondered why she'd want a YouTube sketch comedian, but this email was clearly personalized: it mentioned his creative approach, *Pitch Meeting*, and his original sketches. In a running gag, he asks his collaborator Jeff whether he wrote it. The point is that the flattery was specific enough to feel real.

- **3:06-3:53** — **The pattern emerges.** Similar invitations kept arriving for a long time, supposedly from Mel Robbins, Bert Kreischer, Kim Coles, Anthony Anderson, Donnell Rawlings, Jessie Mae Peluso and others. They had three things in common: each was recorded **live on Facebook**, each was flattering and tied to his work, and each offered **$3,000-$5,000** for his time. Ryan was skeptical and mostly ignored them, until a big enough name came along.

- **3:53-5:09** — **The Adam Carolla bait.** "Mike," claiming to work with Adam Carolla, invited him onto *The Adam Carolla Show*. Ryan takes a few jabs at Carolla, including his Daily Wire+ cartoon *Mr. Birchum* and its single joke about "woke" culture. He then decided to play along, replying with exaggerated fandom and asking if *Mr. Birchum* would get a second season.

- **5:09-6:27** — **Testing the scammer.** Mike said Ryan would need to connect through his Facebook page, with the interview between October 21 and 30. To probe him, Ryan asked to do it the next day, claiming he was leaving for a secret Amazon research project "in the vein of *Madame Web*." Mike happily agreed that they could talk about *Madame Web* or anything else, and asked for a Zoom prep call first. Mike then missed that call, went silent for three hours, and blamed personal issues, so they rescheduled.

- **6:27-8:17** — **The Zoom call.** Ryan's recording didn't capture his own audio, so we only hear Mike, whose camera stayed off. Mike gave vague, generic reassurance ("be yourself," "go with the flow") and said Adam is "a true treasure" who'll make you feel like old friends. Asked about *Mr. Birchum*, Mike hadn't seen it, couldn't name a single Carolla project, and rambled about only joining two years ago and the office not being in the studio. For Ryan, a producer who didn't know his own host's work was the real alarm bell.

- **8:17-9:29** — **The actual goal: control of his Facebook account.** Ryan half-lied that a company runs his Facebook page and he has no access. Mike insisted nothing would work without access to Ryan's own page, stressing that it's a personal, blue-check verified account backed by photo ID. Ryan offered to make a fresh account for what is just a video call. Mike refused with a story about monetization: supposedly Facebook won't let unmonetized accounts join the event. This exposes the target, which is a verified, monetized account, not an interview. Ryan said he'd get back to him, and they stopped talking.

- **9:29-10:39** — **Confirmation from press coverage.** Ryan later found an article about a "fake celebrity podcast scam" fooling Hollywood. Broadway figure and radio host Seth Rudetsky got a flattering invite to Nikki Glaser's podcast from a Gmail address presented as her manager's. He had a camera-off Zoom with the supposed manager, was asked for Facebook permissions to "link accounts," and had his Facebook account hacked. It matches Ryan's experience step for step.

- **10:39-11:58** — **The Bruce Vilanch / "Fresh Air" case.** In another case from the article, comedy writer Bruce Vilanch, 78, was told NPR's Terry Gross had personally invited him onto *Fresh Air*. The scammers then asked him for money because NPR was supposedly struggling, and he sent it. They still carried on with a fake Facebook Live "interview," with windows for Vilanch, "NPR," and a man introducing himself as "Mike." Ryan mocks how pointless the con was: Vilanch has more than 90 guest credits and would have done an interview for free.

- **11:58-13:16** — **Why it matters: AI-personalized scams.** Ryan gives the scammers credit: playing on celebrities' egos with an even bigger name is clever. What scares him is the specificity. Scam emails used to be easy to spot because they were generic and badly written, like the classic "Congratulations dear, free $100 Amazon gift card." With AI and AI agents, any public information about you can be turned into a convincing personal pitch in seconds, such as praise for his *Pitch Meeting* videos and his status as a Canadian creator. That removes the old warning signs.

- **13:16-14:50** — **Warning, then outro.** He warns online business owners and new creators in particular that personalized fraud now takes many forms: fake podcasts, fake consulting gigs, fake interviews and job offers. He jokes that scammers "shouldn't be allowed" to use AI, then leaves for a "Facebook Live with Joe Rogan." The last minute is outro and blooper filler from filming the "I love you, goodbye" gag.

**Practical takeaways**
- Treat "come on our show via Facebook Live" plus pay of $3K-$5K as a known scam pattern, especially if they need your own verified account rather than a guest link.
- Never give page or admin permissions, or connect your verified or monetized account, to anyone you haven't confirmed through an official channel such as the show's website or a known agent.
- Look for mismatches: Gmail "manager" addresses, typos in names, camera-off calls, missed meetings, and "producers" who don't know their own host's work.
- Test them. Suggest an alternative such as a fresh account, a different platform, or an odd date. Legitimate productions adapt, but scammers fall back on excuses like the "monetization" story.
- Don't treat flattery that mentions your specific work as proof anymore. AI makes personalized scams cheap, so check the channel, not the compliments.

## Audience signal

- No high-signal audience themes available.