Matt Rife’s Christmas-themed Netflix special Technically, that might not be the worst thing attached to the controversial TikTok star’s name in 2025. But that’s only because “Matt Rife” allegedly begged large sums of money from his fans north of the border.
While Rife alienated many comedy fans with his flippant jokes about domestic violenceher feigned apology and his “third grader in 1995, love of hacky insultsit’s clear that many people still love him enough to be fooled by confident impostors.
According to CTV Newsa resident of Guelph, Ontario filed a complaint with his local police department after being “contacted online by someone posing as Matt Rife.” The fake Rife sent the victim a message saying they “had problems with their banking transactions”, promising to pay off the brand’s credit card debt in exchange for help depositing a $5,000 check.
“Rife” sent his banking information and the fan complied with the request. Then, “Rife” asked them to “withdraw the money and deposit it into Bitcoin,” which they did, only to be “informed by their bank that they had deposited a fraudulent check and their bank account had been compromised.”
Scammers pretending to be celebrities are obviously nothing new, lest we forget the time a guy bought a bunch of gold using a Ricky Gervais passport made from artwork by The office DVD. And like The Hollywood Reporter Crypto romance scammers posing as stars like George Clooney, Keanu Reeves and Kevin Costner have been noted to be a “billion dollar” scam, frequently targeting older people.
While not quite on Clooney’s level of fame, Rife’s name is apparently a popular tool among many scammers, at least according to various Reddit posts. This problem became so prevalent that the real Rife — we’re pretty sure it was the real Rife — had to warn fans to never send money to anyone claiming to be him or one of his representatives.
A positive side for the actor: now, when you search for the words “Matt Rife” and “flight” on Google, the results are not only articles on his actions.
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