"My career's been all about helping people, wellness, stretching, helping seniors get out of the chair, helping kids work out,"
"Here my likeness was being used to do something really awful."
"These people are being scammed by my image and likeness and being asked for money," Cole said. "It's so awful, and tragic, and mean."
"I will sometimes just Google myself or go onto Facebook and Instagram, and enter my name, and find all the fakes," Cole said. "I'll do this when I'm trying to go to sleep and my stomach will just get in knots. I'll start to get angry and I start to feel like, 'Why does this happen?'"
Scott Cole, a 63-year-old tai chi, yoga and fitness trainer from Palm Springs, has had his likeness repeatedly used in fraudulent social-media profiles. Multiple fake accounts present his photo under different names, including Kevin Ottomar, Caleb Wilson and Wilson Davis, though those men do not exist. Scammers use the images to build romantic relationships and solicit money. Fake profiles have appeared on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. The FBI reports more than $50 billion in losses from similar schemes between 2020 and 2024. Cole regularly searches for the impersonations and experiences anger, distress and helplessness when he finds them.
Read at ABC7 Los Angeles
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