Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon on Wednesday warned her fans about scammers impersonating her.
In a video statement posted to TikTok, the 49-year-old asked fans to avoid engaging with fake accounts pretending to be her.
“I just want to tell you what I’ve been dealing with for the last 24 hours. There are a lot of people on TikTok and Instagram impersonating me, going into people’s DMs, trying to build a relationship, trying to extract personal information, planning dates,” Witherspoon said.
She added: “I want you to know that this is not me. It is very annoying when people use my name to manipulate people, but I want you to know that I will never manipulate you,” noting that “I will never contact you to get money, to obtain private information, or to set up a time to meet.”
But the actress did not reveal exactly what she went through in the past 24 hours.
Reese’s statement came months after Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben released their best-selling thriller, Gone Before Goodbye.
The novel, co-written by Witherspoon and Harlan Coben, will be released in late 2025.
Shortly after its release, some of her fans shared their experience of attending an event featuring the actress and her co-creator.
“I did a paid meet and greet in St. Louis with Reese Witherspoon and Harlan Coben because they wrote a book together. I really did it for Reese because I’m not a big reader, and I have to say I was kind of disappointed,” one fan said.
“First of all, I won’t get the photo that was part of my paid experience until they email it to me, and no timeline for when that will happen was shared with the venue. Second, Reese chose to stand on one side of Harlan while every fan stood on the other side of him to take photos. I mean, technically, it was advertised as a photo with Harlan and Reese, and we all got a photo with Harlan and Reese (or will get it when it’s sent to us), but for $450, I feel like it would have been nice to be in Finally, having Reese on the far side of Harlan meant there was minimal interaction with Reese. Harlan greeted me and asked me how I was doing. Reese stood watching me with a smile on her face and said nothing. “I wasn’t expecting her to at least say hello.”
After Reese Witherspoon warned her fans about scammers using her name, those who attended events related to her novel were immediately convinced why some of her fans might fall victim to fraud.
They believe her fans may have thought the actress actually approached them for a meet and greet and lost money in the process.
However, the actress made it clear that she would never reach out to her fans for money.