Influencer Christian Garcia used celebrity connections as bait to scam victims out of $20,000 for fake chance to meet Elon Musk

A Hollywood influencer with over a million Instagram followers has been accused of being “the male Anna Delvey” after reportedly scamming tens of thousands through a series of broken promises.

Unlike Delvey, who posed as a wealthy heiress to access upper-class New York social scenes, Christian Garcia has allegedly used his proximity to celebrities to sell access to elite entertainment circles that never came to fruition.

The U.S. Sun conducted a months-long investigation into Christian Garcia, 25, after receiving several tips about his dubious dealings.

Claimed victims from Los Angeles to Boston have expressed their grievances about his apparent scheming, with text groups created for those affected to support each other.

They are now on a mission to halt his activities, lodging complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, managed by the FBI, while others consider filing a class-action lawsuit.

Garcia currently has 1.6 million Instagram followers, including singer Meghan Trainor and reality TV star Spencer Pratt, presenting himself as a “public figure,” and often taking selfies with celebrities like Kim Kardashian.

His recent appearances at lavish events, including Demi Lovato’s private album listening party, have unsettled many of his purported victims as he poses on red carpets and highlights his life on social media.

When contacted by phone regarding the allegations, Garcia declined to comment.

A mysterious Tesla employee

Melisa Vong is among several individuals claiming he’s a digital con artist. She says Garcia owes her over $20,000, following promises to arrange a meet-and-greet with Elon Musk.

“I met Christian a while back. He started posting about meeting celebrities and attending red carpet events, building his personal brand in the celebrity niche and gaining access to events like that,” she explained to The U.S. Sun.

“He mentioned a Tesla event, which was supposed to unveil the new Tesla AI robot.

“He said there would be a meet-and-greet with Elon, and he could set up a call with the Tesla events team to make it seem legitimate.”

Altogether, Vong claims she handed over more than $10,000 for the event and says she lost double that amount covering similar opportunities for friends, transferring the money to Garcia via PayPal.

“The Tesla event was supposed to be in February [2025], then due to the LA fires, he started using that as an excuse, claiming it had been rescheduled, which made sense at the time.

“Later, it was pushed to May, which is when it was supposed to happen.

“However, there’s no record of such an event. He keeps saying, ‘Oh, it’s going to be posted on Hollywood Calendar, you’ll get an email from the Tesla people.’”

Vong alleges that Garcia set up a call with a woman named Nikki, who he claimed was a Tesla employee.

Vong received a Zoom link showing Nikki’s full name, but her camera was not on.

Afterward, Vong reached out to Nikki from Tesla via LinkedIn, who allegedly said she knew nothing about the matter or who Garcia was.

Vong elaborated, “A week passed, and nothing happened, so we contacted her again on LinkedIn, asking, ‘Hey, any updates? What’s happening?’ And she responded, ‘Oh, I wasn’t the person you talked to. I never spoke to you guys.’”

“That’s when things started unraveling, and we saw the first major red flag.”

Vong then began investigating and uncovered Instagram posts alerting others about Garcia’s alleged behavior.

“It’s obviously devastating,” she expressed. “You think you’re savvy when it comes to online scams, especially since I work in tech.

“You never believe it could happen to you. You think you can spot a scam from afar, but when someone is charismatic and claims he’s a Christian, with all this social media proof...

“He’s using his Instagram account and connections with various celebrities for false credibility, luring people into this façade.

“He’s clearly scamming people out of their hard-earned money. Maybe he started with good intentions, trying to build a business off these relationships.”

She has not yet reported him to the police, but she has spent months hoping he would eventually pay back what he owes.

“I never fully accused him of being a scammer, but I have confronted him about different instances, and he always has an excuse for everything,” she explained.

“He basically said, ‘Anyone can write things on the internet about anyone. If it were true, they would show receipts of payments made to me.’”

“I’ve asked him about refunds, and it’s always the same story.

“It’s always, ‘Oh, it’s coming, let me contact my rep for an update, it’s coming.’ So you hold onto hope that he will refund it, but probably not.”

Vong is not based in California, and fears about the cost and potential retaliation have prevented her from pursuing legal action. Now, she wants to share her story to warn others.

The U.S. Sun has observed evidence of her payment transactions and communications requesting refunds from Garcia.

She contacted her credit card company to request a refund for her PayPal transactions, instead of going through PayPal directly, but was asked to provide additional documentation.

Vong continued, “There was another event I paid for but could not attend, and he refunded me for that specific event, but it was a very small compared to what he actually owes me.”

Clients ‘conned’ and an FBI complaint

Div is another of Garcia’s alleged victims who unveiled his experience to The U.S. Sun and has been connected with others affected.

Based in San Diego, he runs a PR and marketing agency and says he was introduced to Garcia through a mutual friend in 2024.

Div claims he paid Garcia to get him into a Billboard event in Los Angeles and was assured of being on the guest list.

When he arrived, Div was informed that he wasn’t invited, but Garcia eventually managed to sneak him in.

Garcia assured Div that he could get his PR clients into other significant events and parties, and they decided to collaborate.

Div alleges Garcia conned him out of tens of thousands of dollars – paid by both his agency and his clients – for access to parties.

“I want to sue him,” he told The U.S. Sun.

“I paid him in increments over a period of time. He did not deliver on anything, not a single thing.

“He also promised to get us [coverage] in Forbes 30 under 30, among other things.

“After the first event fell through, we stopped paying him altogether.”

He claims he transferred funds to Garcia via Zelle, crypto, and PayPal over two months, and The U.S. Sun has viewed screenshots of the conversations and money transfers.

“It became quite obvious that what he was doing was a scam,” Div added.

“I was extremely angry. We live in America; there must be consequences. He can’t get away with this.”

Div claims he confronted Garcia via text, but Garcia only ever refunded $1,000.

“He kept alleging that the [first] event had been postponed, citing issues as reasons to be patient, before eventually blocking us,” he stated.

“We ended up paying a significant amount to our clients out of pocket, which hurt us financially. Then we filed a report with the FBI.

“That was all we could do, but we haven’t heard from the authorities yet.

“There was no empathy; he behaved like a complete psychopath.”

The U.S. Sun has reviewed proof of a complaint filed by Div’s business partner on their behalf with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which collaborates with the FBI.

Marlen Orozco is a former associate who first met Garcia at the BET Awards in 2020.

She told The U.S. Sun she was astounded after he allegedly orchestrated a scam during Coachella in April last year, prompting her to sever ties with him.

Garcia told Orozco about Coachella artist wristbands for sale at $2,000 and artist guest passes at $1,500, indicating that she could earn a commission, she revealed to The U.S. Sun.

A total of 15 people allegedly paid Garcia thousands in deposits for passes but never received them.

The U.S. Sun obtained a 42-page document with screenshots of texts related to the Coachella wristbands, showing customers pleading with Garcia for refunds.

Garcia told Orozco via text that he had sent the money to an unidentified third party but did not receive the passes.

Orozco claims many patrons traveled from other states and booked accommodations but were denied entry to the festival.

She suspects he used the money for his tickets and accommodation expenses.

“At that point, they thought I was lying too. I ended up giving my pass to one person who paid because it was the least I could do,” Orozco said.

“He even said to me at Coachella, ‘Why do you care about what they think? You don’t know these people? Why not just block them?’

“Everyone was patient, but no refunds were ever issued.”

Orozco later made a public post on Instagram warning others about Garcia when she stopped collaborating with him.

She has since been overwhelmed with messages from Garcia’s past clients, who claimed similar encounters with him.

“I discovered the truth through everyone else,” she stated.

“I felt dumb for being involved but was also angry. Extremely angry.

“I would describe Christian as the male version of Anna [Delvey]; he’s been doing the same thing, continuing to defraud.

“It has to stop. I think the only way it will stop is in court. He doesn’t learn his lesson.”

The U.S. Sun has viewed screenshots of the chat where alleged victims advised each other and discussed how to prevent Garcia’s future scams.

 

One alleged victim, with years of experience in the film industry and a frequent attendee at showbiz events in Los Angeles, was introduced to Garcia by Orozco.

She claims to still be owed $1,500, repeatedly asking Garcia to call PayPal to refund her the amount for the wristband.

“He was just lying. I called them, and they said, ‘No, he never called us,’” she explained.

“PayPal eventually issued the refund within a week, so he retained the money, of course.”

The alleged victim continued, “Some people were involved in the Coachella incident. Others were affected by concerts or PR jobs that didn’t materialize.

“This guy should be stopped, and someone needs to ensure it happens.

“He’s still out there attending events and premieres. We’ve had numerous people send us DMs, narrating similar experiences.”

Bezos blunder

Kevin King reported being connected with Garcia through a mutual friend, who vouched for him and inquired if King wanted to purchase a ticket for a meet-and-greet with Jeff Bezos.

Documents reviewed by The U.S. Sun show King corresponding with Garcia about the event after paying him $5,000 via credit card around January 2025.

Garcia informed him that the “Amazon Creators Event” was scheduled for Los Angeles on May 29, but a week prior, King hadn’t received confirmations and was later told by Garcia that the event was rescheduled to October.

When October arrived, King described Garcia making excuses.

“I was like, ‘This seems fishy.’” he admitted. “And I checked Jeff Bezos’ schedule. He was in Europe. I felt like the event might not even exist.”

Amazon has hosted creator summits and events previously, but there’s no confirmation that Bezos ever attended, nor were there any meet-and-greets.

King claims he finally requested a refund in October, stating Garcia provided “excuse after excuse.”

He claims he has since disputed the charge with his credit card company and confronted Garcia about the scam, even posting warnings for others on social media.

“He’s always waiting for the contact or the opportunity,” he shared. “I began to threaten him slightly, just to try to shake him, and when I couldn’t, that’s when I knew this guy is a straight-up thief.”

Influencer Jailyne Ojeda, with 15 million Instagram followers, previously aired claims seemingly about Garcia on the Alannized podcast as early as December 2023.

She alleged being scammed out of $30,000 while Garcia acted as her publicist.

Although referring to him solely as “Christian” during the interview, The U.S. Sun independently confirmed she was discussing Garcia.

Photographs from that period show them together, with him employed as her publicist.

The U.S. Sun has tried to reach Ojeda multiple times but to no avail.

Who is Christian Garcia?

Garcia has been interviewed by publications like Forbes and Galore Magazine regarding his ventures as a fashion influencer, podcaster, and mental health advocate.

In 2020, he shared with Forbes, “I’m from San Luis Obispo, California – a small town between SF and LA. Fashion is so rare there that I stood out for taking risks.”

He continued, “At the end of the day, don’t worry about others’ opinions. They’re just behind a screen wishing to be you.”

The U.S. Sun discovered that Garcia has moved between rental properties in recent months and does not appear to have a criminal record.

Sources claim he owned a white Mercedes, though he is often driven to events and is regularly seen wearing designer clothing, including Gucci belts and costly jewelry.

As accusations of his scams have surfaced in recent months, he seems to have transitioned into becoming a food influencer, posting videos sampling dishes at California restaurants.

Will Heffernan, who relocated from Los Angeles to Boston, told The U.S. Sun he knew of Garcia from his time in the city around 2021/2022 and believed Garcia to be well-connected.

When Heffernan lost access to his Instagram account last year, he reached out to Garcia after hearing about his contacts at the company.

“I asked Christian, ‘Hey, do you know anyone at Meta or Instagram who might be able to help recover my account?’” he recounted.

“I was potentially willing to pay. I transferred $1,350 to him, followed by daily texts for follow-up.”

The U.S. Sun reviewed screenshots of these communications.

“I eventually spoke to Marlen [Orozco], who advised, ‘He doesn’t have an Instagram rep anymore.’”

“I’ve heard tales of him being a scam artist. I just didn’t think he’d defraud someone over an Instagram account.

“Seeing him with such followers, it’s easy to fall victim.”

Heffernan stated he doesn’t foresee a refund and chose not to pursue the stress of a fight, but aims to prevent Garcia from targeting others.

“He’s despicable, in it for himself. He needs to be accountable. I’m weary of his deceit.”

‘The biggest scammer in LA’

Hazel Picaso, another asserted victim from Los Angeles, engaged Garcia to assist in promoting a song upon hearing his connections with celebrities.

She claims Garcia promised over 20 influencers would promote her track on their popular social media during a release party.

Picaso claims she paid him $5,000, but only two online stars appeared.

She recalls speaking to him while he offered excuses, labeling him unprofessional.

Picaso recounts, “Garcia told her, ’I can’t control people’s social media. If they refuse to post, I can’t force them.’”

“That’s when I lost it,” she admitted. “I asserted, ‘This is your responsibility. You charged me with the promise those people would promote my song and attend my event.’”

Her opinion changed, hoping at least half the money would be refunded.

“So you know what he did? He blocked me,” she expressed to The U.S. Sun.

When asked if she’d liken him to Delvey, she replied, “He is; he’s the biggest scammer in LA.”

Alleged victims who used PayPal say they didn’t pursue additional refunds from the service since they paid through the Friends and Family section and missed the deadline after spending weeks requesting refunds from Garcia.

A spokesperson for PayPal told The U.S. Sun, “PayPal takes a firm stance against fraudulent activities and swiftly acts against accounts violating our policies.”

It also recommended reaching out to customer support for those suspecting a scam.

The FBI declined to verify or deny investigations into Garcia, urging affected individuals to report it to the Internet Crime Complaint Center.

A Zelle spokesperson advised, “If consumers suspect being scammed, they should immediately contact their bank or credit union for an investigation and appropriate action.

“Such schemes are stark reminders of criminals manipulating individuals long before monetary transactions occur.

“Currently, an exceedingly small number (0.02%) of Zelle transactions lead to a fraud or scam report.”