Man who called influencer a 'scammer' turns out to be romance scam victim himself

Influencer and entrepreneur Ayolyi, whose real name is Kim Min-young, has revealed that scammers are using her personal information and photos to run romance scams. Romance scams involve fraudsters building trust with victims online by posing as a romantic interest before stealing money from them.

Ayolyi posted several images on her social media on Monday, writing, "This is the story of a foreign man who fell victim to a romance scam."

The images showed a foreign man leaving multiple comments on her posts appearing to accuse her of being a scammer.

The man had written comments such as, "About the scam you pulled — did anyone hand you money to pay your bills the way you did to me?" and "You're very good at altering things."

"He's been diligently leaving comments every single day," Ayolyi said, adding that the man had also sent messages about the romance scam to people she knows.

The man reportedly presented a passport photo bearing Ayolyi's face as evidence, convinced she was the scammer. "What's truly heartbreaking is that he even received a passport photo of me — it seems like he was thoroughly deceived," she said. "Even though I told him it wasn't me, he keeps insisting it was and is certain it's me."

"AI seems to have advanced too far," Ayolyi said. "Let's all be careful about romance scams."

Cases of scammers impersonating celebrities by stealing their personal information and photos online have been occurring with increasing frequency.

Last month, Kingkong by Starship — the agency representing actors Yoo Yeon-seok, Lee Dong-wook, Kim Bum, Song Seung-heon, Lee Kwang-soo and Chae Soo-bin — said it had received reports of people impersonating its artists through personal messaging and social media accounts, and stressed that none of its artists would ever ask for money, valuables or personal information through such channels. Shortly afterward, the agency representing singer HYNN (Park Hye-won) also urged fans to exercise caution, saying accounts with usernames deceptively similar to HYNN's official account had been spotted impersonating the artist.