'Most impersonated woman' used by scammers to steal from thousands of men

02 February 2023 , 06:36

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Janessa Brazil's image has been used by multiple scammers

Janessa Brazil is a successful adult entertainment star but now has one of the most impersonated faces on the internet as scammers try to fool unsuspected men.

The real Janessa is registered with a Florida modelling agency who has reportedly said her career has been ruined by multiple tricksters.

She reportedly says that she can’t post on the internet after a man she had never met claimed he had sent her $2million, and she has been banned by a Florida court.

Janessa is apparently only her modelling name in adult films and on the internet there are dozens of fake social media accounts claiming to be her.

And there are many different types of accounts with some portraying her in bikinis and racy outfits while others giving a more professional and elegant image.

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Many internet users have been taken in by the scammers using the image of Janessa Brazil (left) (Getty Images)

Janessa Brazil has reportedly said her life has been ruined by the fake social media accounts

The remarkable story of how so many men have been scammed by fake accounts with the images of the same woman has now been made into the podcast called Love, Janessa.

Hosted by BBC reporter Hannah Ajala, it is the search for the “real Janessa”. The aim was to find out who the real woman was and how she feels about her life being ruined by fake accounts.

Ms Ajala also travelled to Ghana to interview Sakawa Boys, the name given to Ghanaian scammers and she spoke to people who had been conned.

She also found Roberto, an Italian eco-farmer who had been in a four year online relationship with another Janessa despite never having met or spoken to her. In total Roberto had sent her more than $250,000.

It was journalist Simon de Bruxelles who came up with the idea for the podcast as he himself had been taken in by a scammer using Janessa Brazil's image.

The fake accounts with Janessa's image have led to many people losing money

He said in the Express: "My involvement began on New Year’s Eve 2018 when I received a message on Twitter from a woman I didn’t know. She said her name was Tammy Anderson and she was sending greetings from 'my world to yours'. I replied in kind, sending her and her family new year greetings and asking, 'Where exactly is your world?'

"Little did I know I had headed down a rabbit hole leading to one of the world’s largest online scams. At the time I had never heard the expressions “romance scam” or “cat-fishing” – when fraudsters use a fake id to defraud someone they’ve never met – and I had certainly never heard the name Janessa Brazil."

After giving an elaborate story which appeared plausible, it was only when she started asking for money did Mr De Bruxelles realise something dodgy might be going on and realised her photo was a stolen image.

Mr De Bruxelles added: "Curious to find out more I discovered that Janessa Brazil had been described as the most impersonated woman on the internet with more than 100,000 fake social media accounts using her photographs, many actually purporting to be her."

Incredibly as Mr De Bruxelles was putting the podcast together he was actually caught out for a second time by a scammer when he tried to get back in touch with the real Janessa Brazil, which he realised when she asked for money.

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A podcast has been made on the scam using images of Janessa Brazil

"I had been cat-fished a second time! My Janessa then started asking for money to pay the bill for the hotel in Toronto where she said she had fled to escape the furore in the US," he said.

"She sent me copies of emails from her bank stating that her accounts had been frozen. She said she owed the hotel $5,000 and asked if I could lend her the money.

"Although I knew the chances of this being a genuine sob story were vanishingly small, there was still doubt in my mind.

"I advised her to negotiate with the hotel manager. She told me he had tried to sleep with her and had confiscated her passport. I felt awful, despite my certainty none of it was true. I also felt there was a great story here and did not pull the plug."

Soberingly, internet romance scams are on the increase and last year Brits sent more than £100 million to tricksters abroad, according to Action Fraud, reported the Express.

Tim Hanlon