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A woman in New Zealand has claimed she lost $375,000 from someone who pretended to be the star of Virgin River, Mark Henderson.
The 47-year-old, Lea, spoke about her two-year relationship with the alleged scammer during an interview with The New Zealand Herald, published on Friday. She said she learned she was being scammed after her friend sent her an article about Henderson at a biking event in Matakana.
“I thought ‘What is Martin doing in New Zealand in Matakana on a bike rally when he told me he was lying in a hospital bed in Johannesburg after a mild heart attack?’” Lea recalled to the publication.
This discovery came in December after she moved to New Zealand and set up her home there, with plans to marry who she thought was Henderson. However, on January 31, the scammer told her he’d been rushed to the hospital, where he’d been filming in South Africa — which ultimately wasn’t true.
“My head is all over the place and I felt very foolish having opened my heart. I was severely manipulated during some very traumatic events in my life,” Lea said.
She shared that she first got in contact with the scammer two years ago, after posting on a fan page for Virgin River, which Henderson has been on for six seasons.
“I left a message and received a message from his agent saying Martin liked my comments and would like to message me,” she said, noting they shared messages over WeChat and Telegram. “We hit it off immediately and talked about favorite foods and common interests.”
In March 2024, Henderson himself posted a video on Instagram to warn fans of scammers out there. He noted that this was his only social media account and that he didn’t “message anybody” on any other social media platforms, like Telegram. He also told fans to report anyone who was claiming to be him.
However, when speaking to The Herald, Lea said the scammer reassured her, with claims that Henderson’s Instagram video was for other people. So, the pair continued their relationship, as Lea opened up about her family’s health conditions, such as her mother’s stroke and her father’s Alzheimer’s.
In response, the scammer sent her messages in Henderson’s voice, created by AI, that told her they would get together soon. Things then took a turn when the person started asking for money, as he claimed that his accounts were frozen and he needed financial help to leave Hollywood.
“He told me he wanted to leave the acting world and live a quiet life in New Zealand with me – we planned marriage and three children,” Lea added.
The scams started with Lea sending $30,000 for a flight on a private jet. However, the trip was canceled after “Martin” was thrown into jail for breaking his contract.
From there, she sent him $10,000 to bail him out of prison, $500 for a commercial flight after the scammer was allegedly released, and $12,000 for gift cards. She also sent the scammer numerous Bitcoin transfers, which were $500 each.
Before taking a coach seat on a plane to see Henderson, since that was all she could afford, Lea also paid thousands of dollars to ship a box from New Zealand to China, which was where she worked.
Lea was told the box had work contracts, a diamond ring, Rolex watches, and $148,000. However, that ultimately wasn’t the case, and she paid $56,000 for a box that didn’t exist.
After losing her money in these scams, Lea took out loans at different bank accounts and used a credit card with an $85,000 limit. She also had a bank account, which she used for 18 years, closed after recent transactions were flagged as “money laundering,”
The Independent has contacted Henderson for comment.
Lea’s experience comes a month after a woman was scammed into handing over $859,000 by a person who used AI-generated photos of Brad Pit to convinced her they were in love and that he needed money for cancer treatment.
The 53-year-old French woman said the “relationship” began soon after she received a message from an account claiming to be Jane Etta Pitt, the Hollywood star’s mother, telling her she was exactly the woman her son needed. The computer-generated imitation of the Fight Club actor messaged her the next day, asking to know more about her.
Over the next year-and-a-half, her fake ‘lover’ would send her poems, and declarations of love and eventually asked her to marry him. Police are investigating the con that left the woman hospitalized with depression.
He even told her that Pitt’s real-life ex-wife Angelina Jolie had frozen his bank accounts and he had no access to his fortune.
Despite her doubts, she was reassured by the fake star’s “doctor” who emailed her explaining Pitt was dying and fighting to survive, at which point she transferred around €800,000 (around $828,000) to an account in Turkey. However, the woman realized she was being scammed in the summer of 2024 when the real Pitt was seen with his current partner Inès de Ramon.
In September, Pitt’s representative also issued a warning to fans, as five imposters were arrested in Spain after defrauding two women out of $362,000 by posing as the actor.
“It’s awful that scammers take advantage of fans’ strong connection with celebrities,” his publicist, Matthew Hiltzik, said at the time. “But this is an important reminder to not respond to unsolicited online outreach, especially from actors who have no social media presence.”
