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Paige Spiranac has become one of the most recognizable figures in golf, but her rise as a digital star hasn't come without serious problems.
Alongside the fame, she has faced years of scams, impersonations, and unsettling encounters that have taken a toll on both her and her fans.
Speaking on the St. Andre Golf YouTube channel, Spiranac admitted the growing number of impostor accounts has been one of her biggest challenges.
"The hardest thing for me is that there's a lot of like impersonating accounts," she said. "I've had people come up at events and like...try to kiss me cuz they think that we're together. Um, which is really scary."
Costly scams and dangerous beliefs
According to Spiranac, scammers posing as her have swindled fans out of large sums of money.
"They'll scam people, and then those people get really, really angry because they'll lose, like you know $100,000," she explained.
The fraud usually begins on Instagram, WhatsApp, or Telegram, where con artists pretend to be Spiranac in distress.
After extended conversations, some victims are convinced they are in a romantic relationship with her, sending money under that false belief.
For Spiranac, that's the most troubling part: "That's the worst part because it's just still like the wild, wild west of, you know, social media."
Fake accounts become stranger over time
The scams have taken increasingly bizarre turns. In 2016, a doctored photo showed her holding a fake love note.
By 2018, someone created a counterfeit driver's license using her image. In 2023, she even had to debunk fake accounts that were inviting fans to play online Scrabble under her name.
At one point, she posted a screenshot of two impersonators interacting with each other, writing, "Fake me responding to another fake me lol. They could make a black mirror episode about impersonating accounts because it's out of control."
Fighting back in the digital wild west
Spiranac has tried to fight back by warning fans directly. She's clarified that she does not use Telegram, Google Hangouts, or other fringe platforms, and that her official interactions happen only through Passes, a subscription service she joined partly to reduce confusion.
"One reason I have my Passes account is to help eliminate any confusion with impersonators," she told followers.
But the problem has not gone away. In August 2025, she secured a three-year restraining order against one man who escalated from online harassment to stalking her in person, a stark reminder of how internet scams can spill into real life.