Matt Cardona has taken to social media to call out a pair of Instagram accounts that are impersonating him and promoting an allegedly shady investment scheme. On November 25, Cardona posted screenshots of the fake profiles, alerting his followers that he is “done being the face of someone else’s scam”. The two accounts, ‘@treinadorariel’ and ‘@markorrobbins1’, have been using Cardona’s image to promise a highly improbable 20% monthly return on investments.
A Textbook Social Media Scam
The fraudulent posts claimed to offer a significant return on investment within a month. The impersonators were quoting high figures for their potential “clients”. The impersonators’ claim read:
“I give a 20% monthly investment. You give me between $50k and $100k, and I will give you a monthly return of 20%.”
Both scam profiles included Cardona’s wrestling photos and featured artificially inflated follower counts: one private account claimed 55K followers, while a public account displayed over 300K. The use of a public figure’s likeness to lure fans into parting with their money is a textbook example of a social media scam. Cardona has dealt with impersonation issues in the past, leading to his public plea for assistance.
Putting Public Pressure on Instagram
The wrestling star’s immediate goal is to have the accounts removed without incurring a significant personal cost. Cardona is now putting public pressure on social media platforms like Instagram to step up their moderation and take down these types of fraudulent profiles without charging creators large sums of money. He posted a screenshot of the profiles along with his plea for help:
“Anyone know how I can get rid of these scam IG accounts? (Without paying thousands of dollars).”
Anyone know how I can get rid of these scam IG accounts? (Without paying thousands of dollars)
They have me blocked… pic.twitter.com/POXtr9lvZW
— Matt Cardona (@TheMattCardona) November 25, 2025
