Over the past five years, LPGA players have repeatedly raised their voices against a disturbing trend of catfishing scams that impersonate female golfers, lure fans into fake relationships and drain them of thousands of dollars.
Despite public warnings, the scams persist. And now, they’ve pushed former world No. 1 Nelly Korda to speak out with urgency.
The latest eye-opening moment came from The Athletic, which created a fictitious Instagram account under the name Rodney Raclette, a 62-year-old Indiana native and self-proclaimed LPGA superfan. Within 20 minutes of following a few verified accounts, Rodney received a message from what appeared to be Nelly Korda herself.
“Hi, handsomeface, I know this is like a dream to you. Thank you for being a fan,” read the DM from @nellykordaofficialfanspage2, per report. Of course, it wasn’t Korda. And Rodney doesn’t exist. But the scam was all too real.
In the real world, a fake account impersonates a golfer, initiates contact, then quickly shifts the conversation to Telegram or WhatsApp. From there, the scammer offers exclusive perks, VIP access, autographed gear, and even romantic promises in exchange for untraceable payments via cryptocurrency or gift cards.
Once the money stops, the scammer vanishes. This forced Korda to raise her voice.
“It’s been taken out of my hands being able to communicate freely with fans,” Korda told The Athletic. “Because I don’t really know their intentions.”
Korda has pinned a warning to the top of her Instagram profile, but the scams are evolving faster than she can report them. She says she used to flag 20 fake accounts per day. Now, they multiply by the hour.
“You’re just put into a situation you really don’t want to be in,” she said as quoted by The Athletic. “You feel bad, you feel guilty for people going through this. It’s the last thing you want. It’s not only putting the players in danger, in a sense, but it’s putting all the fans in danger.”
This is not the end, though. In one case, a Pennsylvania man drove four hours to Liberty National Golf Club believing he had a VIP dinner planned with Rose Zhang. He had sent her $70,000 over a year. Zhang’s agent had to break the news that it wasn’t her and that he had been scammed.
Even The Athletic’s fictional fan made up for the story was asked for ID and offered a “Fan Membership Card” for $700. When he hesitated, the fake Korda threatened to end the conversation until she sent an AI-generated video of the real Korda, altered to address him by name.
Security experts say the scams are difficult to trace and nearly impossible to prosecute. Most perpetrators operate overseas, and the FBI rarely intervenes unless the financial loss crosses a high threshold.
All said, the problem persists. The day after Rodney’s account was created, the scam page that messaged him was deleted. When Rodney emailed the fake Korda to ask why, she replied, “I deactivated the account because of imposters, and the FBI are working on catching them.”
That, too, was a lie.
As the LPGA continues to grow in popularity, so does the threat.
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