Ioan Gruffudd warns fans after AI-generated images were used to impersonate him

A warning from the actor

Ioan Gruffudd, the Welsh actor known for playing Reed Richards in the Fantastic Four films, used an Instagram post on Sunday, 8 November 2026 to warn followers about impersonators. The 53-year-old wrote that a woman who came to a convention he had attended believed she had been in an extramarital relationship with him for more than a year. His account has 147,000 followers. He said the woman had been shown hundreds of images and videos that someone claiming to be him had sent her, and he described them as explicit and disturbing. The post urged followers not to send money to anyone using his likeness and asked them to ignore and block any contact from someone who claims to be him.

“She showed me hundreds of AI images and videos that someone claiming to be me had sent to her.”

How the scam allegedly worked

Gruffudd said the woman had been reached through a Facebook page dedicated to the crime drama Elsbeth, in which he played a musician called Angus. That page gave her a cell number and asked her to continue the conversation on Telegram, the messaging app. From there, the sender transmitted AI-generated images and videos meant to prove the messages came from him. Gruffudd said he would never give his number to anyone he does not personally know, and he stressed that his only genuine social media page is @IoanGruffudd. He published the mobile number of the person imitating him and asked anyone targeted to report it to the police, adding that he had already done so himself.

“I will never give out my cell number to anyone that I don't personally know.”

Clarification on Monday

On Monday, 9 November, Gruffudd returned to his Instagram stories to clarify that the woman had never been the victim of a financial scam. He said no money was ever requested from her and that she sent none. The case was therefore set apart from financial scams that have targeted celebrities such as Sandra Bullock and Brad Pitt. The original post remained closed to comments, with the exception of one from his Elsbeth colleague Sean Maguire, who wrote that it was crazy times.

Wider context

Other celebrities who have spoken out about the misuse of AI technology include Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Tom Jones and Martin Lewis. Gruffudd's own credits include Black Hawk Down (2001), Titanic (1997), Horrible Bosses (2011) and San Andreas (2015), and he has starred in the ITV thriller Liar as Andrew Earlham. His warning concerns deepfake-style material using his likeness rather than a financial loss by any of the people contacted, according to his own account of the woman's experience. The post's central instruction stays the same: do not interact with unverified profiles, never send money, and report the number to police.