American actress and film producer Reese Witherspoon spoke out after discovering that scammers have been impersonating her online, warning fans that she would “never” try to manipulate or scam anyone.
On January 14, Wednesday, the actress addressed the situation directly in a TikTok video from her official account. The video gained the attention of many, and she described it as a large-scale social media fraud.
Witherspoon, in a video, noted, “Hey, this is important. I want to just tell you what I’ve been dealing with for the past 24 hours”.
She explained that multiple fake accounts on TikTok and Instagram have been posing as her and reaching out to people privately.
According to the Morning Show star, these impersonators go into direct messages and attempt to build personal relationships with unsuspecting users.
Witherspoon said the scammers then try to “extract personal information, plan meet-up times” while pretending to be her. Making her position clear, she told viewers, “I want you to know this is not me”. She added, “It’s so upsetting that people would use my name to manipulate people. But I want you to know that I would never ever manipulate you”.
The Oscar winner stressed that she would never contact fans to ask for money, private details, or to arrange meetings. She urged followers to carefully check whether accounts are verified before responding to any messages that claim to be from her.
She asked fans to stay alert, “This is not just me, this is happening across the board, but it’s really upsetting to me that this is happening on such a large scale”.
Witherspoon reinforced her message in the caption of the post, writing, “I would never manipulate you. Please check for verification”. Her warning comes as more public figures address similar issues.
She is the latest celebrity to speak up about online impersonation scams, following Sandra Bullock, who revealed in February 2025 that scammers had been pretending to be her sister, Gesine Bullock-Prado, raising safety concerns.
By directly addressing her followers, Witherspoon aimed to protect fans from being misled and to raise awareness about how common and damaging these impersonation scams have become.