BackDaejon Love: The Fake NFL Player AI Put on the 49ers Roster (and AI or Not Detected)
Daejon Love faked NFL photos and a LinkedIn title well enough that Google's AI Overview repeated his story back, and investigators say 26 women believed it.
“My boyfriend plays for the 49ers, he's one of the best receivers on the team!” Some versions of that sentence have now been said by a lot of women, publicly, on the Internet. Federal prosecutors have identified 26 of them.
Google's AI Overview about Daejon Love: a wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, with information about his position, his contract, and even his teammate texting habits.
None of it is true. Love never played for the 49ers, or anywhere else in the NFL. The proof he showed people was AI generated, or in old school terms, made up. He even screenshotted the AI Overview, titled the post "NFL Journey," and said on camera "That's Google. That's not me, that's Google."
Federal prosecutors say Love used that AI created career, a fake LinkedIn title, and AI-generated photos to defraud at least 26 women out of roughly $1.3 million.
Key Takeaways from the Daejon Love NFL Scam
- Federal prosecutors say Daejon Love, 35, and Taylor Chan, 18, took roughly $1.3 million from at least 26 women in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California.
- AI or Not detected images from Love's now-removed accounts, including a hospital charity photo and a helmet portrait, as AI-generated.
- A January 2026 Google search for his name returned the real 49ers roster next to his fake Instagram, a misspelled LinkedIn title ("Reciever"), and a TikTok blurb promising his "font preferences."
- Google's AI Overview summarized those results into a sentence calling him a 49ers player, and Love screenshotted it as proof.
- After his August 2026 arrest, players and teams posted more AI-generated images of Love, including a fake Madden cover that AI or Not also flagged.
What the FBI Says the Fake 49ers Receiver Actually Did
Love and Chan were arrested at the Boise airport on Aug. 24, 2026, and charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud. Prosecutors say the scheme began in February 2022 on Facebook Dating and later moved to Hinge and Bumble, with Love using aliases including Jon Love and Avril Lyto Love. Chan posed as his financial adviser, joining FaceTime calls with victims and supplying fake investment screenshots.
Between January 2021 and June 2025, Love received $1,378,423.96 across cash deposits, Zelle, Apple Pay, CashApp, bank transfers, and Venmo, the affidavit says, and spent nearly all of it on withdrawals and travel. Investigators found no payroll deposits from the 49ers and no real securities behind the gains he showed victims.
How AI Image Detection Flagged His 49ers Photos
We ran three images pulled from Love's now-deleted social accounts through AI or Not's image detector. All three came back AI-generated.
The first shows Love at a hospital "Make-A-Wish" visit, handing a child a 49ers jersey with "LOVE" on the back. The jersey doesn't agree with itself: the number reads 4 on the back and 8 on the sleeve. We went back to it three times before we trusted what we were seeing.
The second is a portrait outside a storefront called "Luxe MIA," Love holding a 49ers helmet. The detector flagged it too.
A third close-up of Love in 49ers gear outside a stadium came back the same way.
How AI Slop Poisoned the Google AI Overview
In January 2026, investigators typed Love's name into Google and screenshotted the results, now an exhibit in the federal complaint. The page mixed real and fake sources with nothing to separate them: his Instagram, the real 49ers roster, which doesn't include him, a LinkedIn profile reading "Daejon Love - Reciever at National Football League (NFL)" with the misspelling intact, and a TikTok video with nearly 100,000 views promising to reveal "his contract, position, and font preferences."
Google's AI Overview, which condenses results into a line above the links, told searchers Love was a 49ers wide receiver with a contract, a position, and teammate texting habits. FBI Special Agent Tyler Esswein wrote in the affidavit: "search engines and artificial intelligence occasionally stated that Love was a bonafide 49ers player."
That's the loop, in four steps: fabricate the content, get it indexed, get it summarized, then screenshot the summary as proof. The summary layer repeated what was already online, and Love used the repetition as evidence for a story he'd made up himself.
The Women Who Caught It Anyway
Ayana Velasquez, who went on a date with Love, sensed something was off. She told CBS News, "It just seemed too good to be true." She checked the photos he sent her. "Once I saved those into my camera roll, they said that they were screen recorded," she said. "So I was like, oh, that's definitely not any of his."
Velasquez had blunt advice for anyone in her position: "If he says that he's an NFL player, you could have looked him up on the roster to see that he's not there."
The Internet Answered With More AI Images
Love's arrest sped up the AI image machine. Within days:
- 49ers receivers coach Leonard Hankerson posted an AI-generated photo of himself "coaching" Love at practice, and teammate Kendrick Bourne commented, "Man I knew you was coaching him."
- Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward posted an AI image of Love in Pittsburgh gear in the locker room: "Bro... he was JUST at the facility."
- Chargers linebacker Daiyan Henley posted a Love-style photo captioned "Believe it or not I'm in the NFL," and the team's account replied "can confirm."
- The Cleveland Guardians dropped Love into their MLB lineup graphic on X: "Daejon is locked in."
- A fake "Madden NFL 27" cover featuring Love, credited to the account @PoemzOfTheHeart and amplified by Football Forever, spread fastest of all.
We ran Hankerson's coaching photo and the Madden cover through AI or Not. Both came back AI-generated, the Madden cover with a garbled scrawl where a signature should be.
Everyone posting these knows they're jokes. But the supply is identical to what fooled his victims: the highest-volume content under Daejon Love's name is still synthetic, just faster now that the internet is making it instead of him.
FAQ
Did Daejon Love ever play for the 49ers?
No. The NFL and 49ers told investigators he was never employed by either organization, and prosecutors say his football career was entirely fabricated.
How did AI help the fake NFL player scam work?
Love allegedly posted AI-generated images of himself in 49ers gear across social media, then bought followers to make the accounts look credible. That volume shaped what Google's AI Overview told victims who searched his name.
How much money did the fake 49ers player take?
Prosecutors say Love took roughly $1.3 million from at least 26 women across Oregon, Washington, Idaho, and California starting in 2022. The FBI's accounting of every dollar that moved through his accounts between January 2021 and June 2025 comes to $1,378,423.96. Investigators expect more victims to come forward.
How can I tell if someone's photos are AI-generated?
Running a photo through an AI image detection tool is the fastest check. Look for details that don't agree with themselves, like a jersey number that reads differently front to back. That kind of inconsistency is one of the simplest signs of a deepfake image.
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