A host of scams with actors purporting to be South African people of prominence, including Elon Musk and President Cyril Ramaphosa, are proliferating online.
Celebrities are used to try and build legitimacy for scams that try to steal people's money or personal data.
Jean le Roux, a research associate at the Digital Forensic Research Lab, said using people of prominence for these scams has pros and cons for scammers.