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On September 2, 2019, Australian model and social-media personality Emily Sears warned followers that a separate Instagram account was impersonating her and sending direct messages. She said the account was not hers and asked people it contacted to report it. Contemporary reporting described an impersonator—not a confirmed takeover of Sears’s real account or theft of her financial identity.
What happened to Emily Sears on Instagram?
The account identified in contemporary coverage as @emily_sears_official contacted Instagram users while presenting itself as Sears’s official place to chat with fans and families. Sears shared a screenshot of a message and publicly denied that the account was hers. PerthNow’s September 2, 2019 report described her warning and request that followers report fake accounts; Yahoo Lifestyle Australia identified the reported handle.
The message’s significance was its claim to be an official, personal channel. That kind of invitation can make a recipient feel they are speaking privately with a public figure. The reports do not establish what the account operator wanted from recipients or whether anyone responded.
Was Sears’s real account hacked?
The available reports do not say Sears’s genuine Instagram profile was taken over. They describe a separate account using her name and identity. That is online impersonation, sometimes loosely called identity theft in headlines; it is not evidence that her password, financial accounts, government identity, or private data were compromised.
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The account operator was not identified in the coverage. It also does not establish how many people received messages, whether anyone lost money or shared sensitive information, or whether Instagram removed the profile or investigated it. A copied photograph or familiar name can make a fake profile look plausible without giving its operator access to the real person’s account.
Why impersonation accounts can be a financial risk
Public figures’ recognizable identities and large audiences can give a fake account credibility and a broad pool of potential targets. In other cases, impersonators may use that trust to solicit money, personal details, gifts, private images, or a move to another messaging service. They may also promote fabricated contests, paid chats, investments, or subscriptions.
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Those are possible uses of impersonation accounts generally, not outcomes documented in Sears’s case. Her warning established that a fake account was messaging people; it did not establish a particular fraud scheme or financial loss.
How to handle a suspicious celebrity or influencer message
- Check the account, not just the photo. Compare the username with the person’s known profile and look for copied posts, inconsistent activity, or other signs that the account is not genuine. A verification badge can be useful context, but it does not authenticate a message from a similarly named account.
- Do not follow a push to act privately or urgently. Avoid links and requests to move to another app, especially if the sender asks for payment, personal details, or secrecy.
- Keep sensitive information to yourself. Do not send passwords, one-time security codes, payment details, identity documents, or cryptocurrency to an account you have not independently verified.
- Save evidence before blocking. Capture the profile and messages, including the username, so you have a record if you need to report the account or resolve a payment dispute.
- Report and block the profile. Use Instagram’s reporting options for an account pretending to be someone else, then block it to prevent further contact.
- Act quickly if you shared money or information. Contact your payment provider if you sent funds. If you disclosed a password, change it and secure the affected account; if you shared sensitive identity information, contact the relevant institution or authority for advice.
Who is Emily Sears?
Contemporary reports described Sears as an Australian model based in Los Angeles and a prominent social-media personality. They said she had more than 4.8 million Instagram followers at the time; that is a September 2019-era figure, not a current count, and does not show how many users the fake account contacted. Her official biography describes her as an Australian model and social-media personality and lists work associated with GQ, Maxim, and FHM.
Sears had also been in the news in 2016 after reports that she responded to unsolicited explicit images by contacting some senders’ wives or girlfriends. That was a separate online-harassment story, not part of the 2019 impersonation incident. The Irish Independent covered that earlier episode.
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