Ioan Gruffudd at Comic-Con International, 2011. Photo by vagueonthehow, cropped (CC BY)
Ioan Gruffudd says a woman came up to him at a recent convention convinced they had been in an extramarital relationship for more than a year — after someone impersonating the Elsbeth actor flooded her with explicit AI images and videos. In an Instagram carousel posted Nov. 8, the Welsh star framed it as a romance-scam warning and said he has reported the matter to police.
Key Takeaways
- Gruffudd says the woman was contacted from an Elsbeth Facebook page, given a cell number, and told to move the chat to Telegram.
- He says the impersonator sent “hundreds” of explicit AI images and videos to “prove” it was him.
- On slide two of the same post, Gruffudd says he will never give his cell number to strangers, urges fans not to send money, and asks anyone targeted to report the contact to police — as he says he has done.
- He lists a number he says the scammer used, or one of them: 915-272-3815. Pop Culture Pit is repeating that only as Gruffudd stated it; we are not independently verifying the line.
The Full Story
Gruffudd’s post, captioned “Important,” opens with what he calls something “incredibly distressing and disturbing.” A woman at a convention he was attending, he says, believed she had been in a relationship with him for over a year. She showed him the AI media. “The images were explicit and disturbing,” he writes.
According to Gruffudd, the approach started on an Elsbeth Facebook page — he guest-starred on the CBS series as Scottish musician Angus — before the person sent a cell number and asked her to switch to Telegram. That off-platform hop is a classic romance-scam move: once the chat leaves a platform with reporting tools, it is harder for the real celebrity’s team or the host site to shut it down.
On the second slide, Gruffudd says any message, Telegram chat, or social page that is not his verified Instagram (@ioangruffudd) is not him. “Please do not engage and never send money,” he writes, asking fans to ignore and block anyone claiming to be him. He says he has reported the person and their number to police and asks others who were targeted to do the same.
As of publish time, Pop Culture Pit has not seen independent news outlets confirm additional details beyond Gruffudd’s own post. We are not naming or describing the woman who approached him.
How Fans Can Spot an Impersonation
Gruffudd’s own checklist is practical: stick to the verified account, treat a sudden move to Telegram or a private cell number as a red flag, and never send money. Official celebrity accounts also do not cold-DM fans to prove intimacy with AI nudes. If a “star” asks you off-platform, assume it is a scam until their verified channels say otherwise — and report the account where you found it.
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