Mariana van Zeller Goes Undercover To Expose The People Behind Romance Scams

Romance scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated, and National Geographic is taking viewers inside the world of online deception with a new investigative documentary special that sees Emmy Award-winning journalist Mariana van Zeller put herself directly in the line of fire.

SUPER SCAM ME premieres on Sunday, 18 October at 21:00 CAT on National Geographic across Africa, available on DStv 181 and StarTimes 220. The one-hour special will also be available on Disney+ in South Africa.

Rather than investigating romance scams from the outside, van Zeller takes a more immersive approach. She creates a new online dating persona and deliberately positions herself as a potential victim, allowing her to experience the tactics and psychological manipulation used by scammers first-hand.

The investigation becomes increasingly serious when van Zeller focuses on one scammer posing as a four-star general. As his messages become more persistent and manipulative, she works with a white-hat cyber hacker to investigate his identity and location, eventually setting out to confront him face-to-face.

The documentary comes at a time when romance scams are becoming more difficult to identify. Generative AI has added another layer to the problem, allowing criminals to create increasingly convincing imitations of celebrities and public figures and making it harder for potential victims to distinguish genuine interactions from carefully constructed deception.

According to National Geographic, an estimated one in seven adults has lost money to this form of deception, while romance scammers stole more than $1 billion from American victims in 2025 alone.

For van Zeller, one of the most important parts of the investigation was challenging the idea that romance scams only happen to people who should have known better.

“I’ve spent years reporting on scams, and the reaction I hear most is ‘How could anyone be so stupid? That would never happen to me.’ But it can, and it does happen to anyone,” says van Zeller. “So this time, I made myself the target.”

The documentary also follows people who have experienced the consequences of these scams first-hand. Among them is a woman who believed she was in a relationship with musician Jon Bon Jovi, only to discover that the person she had been communicating with was not who she believed him to be. The deception ultimately left her facing foreclosure on her home.

The investigation therefore goes beyond the mechanics of online scams to examine why people become vulnerable to them and how scammers use trust, emotion and psychological manipulation to maintain control.

The documentary will also extend beyond television through van Zeller's podcast, The Hidden Third. Special episodes dedicated to SUPER SCAM ME will be released during the week of 12 October, including exclusive interviews with the white-hat hacker and a victim featured in the documentary.

Van Zeller has spent years investigating criminal networks and underground economies through National Geographic's Emmy-winning series Trafficked with Mariana van Zeller, which has earned 88 Emmy nominations and 16 wins.

SUPER SCAM ME is produced by Muck Media for National Geographic, with Jeff Plunkett and Mariana van Zeller serving as executive producers. Plunkett also directs, while Bengt Anderson serves as executive producer for National Geographic.

The documentary premieres on National Geographic across Africa on 18 October at 21:00 CAT, with the special also available on Disney+ in South Africa.