Fitness trainer’s photos used by romance scammers to catfish unsuspecting women across globe for 15 years
Scott Cole, 63, said that he’s at the center of a 15-year catfish scam that’s stolen his likeness to scam women. ABC News
Romance scammers have allegedly been exploiting the photos and likeness of a California fitness trainer to create convincing fake profiles, tricking women across the globe into sending them money.
Scott Cole, 63, a tai chi and fitness trainer from Palm Springs, told ABC 7 that his image has been used in accounts posing as Kevin Ottomar, a project foreman from Florida; Caleb Davis, a North Carolina college student; and Wilson Davis, a marine engineer in Ireland.
“My career’s been all about helping people—wellness, stretching, helping seniors get out of the chair, helping kids work out,” Cole said. “Here, my likeness was being used to do something really awful.”
Cole has been targeted on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn since 2010, and he is one of thousands of Americans victimized by romance scams. The FBI reports that victims lost over $50 billion to such schemes between 2020 and 2024.
“These people are being scammed by my image and likeness and being asked for money,” Cole said. “It’s so awful, tragic, and mean.” Some fake accounts even use his real name.
Cole described the emotional toll of seeing the fake profiles. “I’ll Google myself or search Facebook and Instagram and find all the fakes. It makes my stomach knot, I get angry, and I think, ‘Why does this happen?’”
One near-victim, a German woman named Jennifer Liese, was almost duped by an account posing as Ottomar, which used Cole’s photo. The account sent her a “happy International Women’s Day” message, leading to an online and phone relationship. Months later, “Ottomar” asked her to transfer money for supposedly broken construction machines at work.
“I realized this was a scam,” Liese said. She performed a reverse image search, which revealed the real man behind the profile: Scott Cole. “I was disappointed but knew I had to contact him,” she said.
Cole has been contacted by hundreds of women over the past decade—some of whom lost thousands before realizing the accounts were fake. “My natural response is to help them, but at some point, it becomes too big to handle,” he said.
He has reported numerous accounts on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and TikTok, and filed two reports with the FBI, though he hasn’t heard back. The agency says it takes complaints seriously but can’t always respond due to the volume of tips.
“I think one reason they may not have responded is that this is so rampant,” Cole said. “I’d love for technology to catch up and help stop this from going on.”
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said in February that automated systems detect malicious accounts. LinkedIn reported that over 99% of fake accounts are removed proactively. TikTok said it takes down about 94% of videos violating its fraud and scams policies before they are reported.
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