Hollywood influencer dubbed ‘the male Anna Delvey’ after ‘scamming people out of thousands’

A HOLLYWOOD influencer with more than a million Instagram followers has been accused of being “the male Anna Delvey” after allegedly scamming tens of thousands through a trail of broken promises.

But where Delvey posed as a wealthy heiress to access upper-class New York social scenes, Christian Garcia has allegedly used his proximity to celebrity to sell access to elite entertainment circles that never materialized.

The U.S. Sun conducted a months-long investigation into Christian Garcia, 25, after receiving several tips about his so-called sketchy dealings.

Alleged victims from Los Angeles to Boston have complained about his apparent scheming, with text threads created for those affected to seek support from each other.

They are now on a mission to stop him in his tracks and have lodged complaints with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, run by the FBI, while others are considering filing a class-action lawsuit.

Garcia currently has 1.6million Instagram followers, including singer Meghan Trainor and reality TV star Spencer Pratt, and lists himself as a “public figure,” snapping selfies with celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

His recent appearances at glitzy events, including Demi Lovato’s private album listening party, have left many of his alleged victims rattled as he poses on red carpets and hams it up on social media.

After being reached by phone and asked about the following allegations, Garcia declined to comment.

A mysterious Tesla employee

Melisa Vong is among several people to claim he’s a digital swindler. She says she is owed more than $20,000 after Garcia told her he could secure a meet-and-greet with Elon Musk.

“I met Christian a while back. He started posting that he was meeting all these celebrities and going to all these red carpet events, kind of building his personal brand in the celebrity niche and getting access to events and things like that,” she told The U.S. Sun.

“He told me about this Tesla event. It was supposed to be an unveiling of the new Tesla AI robot.

“And he said there was going to be a meet-and-greet with Elon, and that he could get me on a call with the Tesla events team and everything, just to legitimize it.”

In total, Vong alleges she handed over more than $10,000 for the event, but says she is out of pocket double that amount after also paying for friends to have similar opportunities, sending the money to Garcia via PayPal.

“It [the Tesla event] was supposed to be February [2025], then the LA fires happened, so he started using that as an excuse, essentially, saying it had been rescheduled, and it made sense at the time.

“Then it was pushed out to May, which is when it was supposed to happen.

“But there’s no record of any event. He keeps saying, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be posted on Hollywood Calendar, you’re going to get an email directly from the Tesla people.’”

Vong claims he set up a call with a woman named Nikki, who he said was a Tesla employee.

She said she received a Zoom link that clearly showed Nikki’s full name, but her camera wasn’t switched on.

Afterward, Vong used LinkedIn to reach out to Nikki from Tesla, who allegedly told her she knew nothing about the situation or about who Garcia was.

Vong explained, “A week goes by, nothing happens, so we reach back out through LinkedIn, we’re like, ‘Hey, any update? What’s going on?’ And she was like, ‘Oh, I wasn’t the person you were talking to. I never talked to you guys.’

“So that’s when it started unraveling a little bit, and we were like, okay, that’s the first real red flag.”

Vong then started digging and found Instagram posts warning others about Garcia’s alleged conduct.

“It’s obviously devastating,” she said. “You think that you’re savvy when it comes to online scams, and I work in tech.

“You never think that you’re also going to be one to be scammed. You think that you can sniff one out a mile away, but when someone’s charismatic and claims he’s a Christian, all this social media proof.

“He’s leveraging his Instagram account and his connection to all these different celebrities as false credibility to then lure people into this facade.

“He’s clearly scamming people out of their hard-earned money. Maybe he started off with good intentions and was trying to build a business off of these relationships.”

She has yet to report him to the police, but she has spent months hoping he would pay up.

“I never fully called him out for it being a scam, but I have confronted him about different instances, and he always seems to have an excuse for everything,” she said.

“He basically said, ‘Anyone can write stuff on the internet about anyone. If it was actually true, they would actually show receipts that they paid me anything.’

“I’ve asked him about refunds as well, and it’s the same story.

“It’s just, ‘Oh, it’s coming, it’s coming, let me reach out to my rep for an update, it’s coming.’ So you have some hope that he is going to refund it, but probably most likely not.”

Vong is not based in California and said the expense of suing Garcia – and possible retaliation – has stopped her from going ahead so far. But she now wants to tell her story to warn others.

The U.S. Sun has seen evidence of her payment transactions and messages asking Garcia to refund her.

She contacted her credit card company to request a refund for her PayPal transactions rather than going through PayPal directly, but was told to provide more documentation.

Vong added, “There was another event that I ended up paying him for, ended up not being able to go, but he did refund me for that specific event, but it was a very, very small amount compared to what he actually owes me.”

Clients ‘conned’ and an FBI complaint

Div is another of Garcia’s alleged victims who has spoken about his experience with The U.S. Sun and has been connected to others affected.

Based in San Diego, he runs a PR and marketing agency and says he was introduced to the influencer through a mutual friend in 2024.

Div claims he paid Garcia to get him into a Billboard event in Los Angeles and was told he was on the guest list.

When he arrived, Div was told he wasn’t invited, but Garcia eventually managed to sneak him in.

Garcia insisted that he could get Div’s PR clients into other major events and parties, and the pair decided to work together.

Div alleges Garcia scammed him out of tens of thousands of dollars – paid by both his agency and his clients – for access to parties.

“I want to sue him,” he told The U.S. Sun.

“I paid him in parts over a period of time. He did not deliver on anything, not a single thing.

“He also said he was going to get us [coverage] in Forbes 30 under 30, a bunch of stuff.

“When the first event did not go through, obviously, we didn’t pay him anything else.”

He claims he sent Garcia the funds through Zelle, crypto, and PayPal over two months, and The U.S. Sun has seen screenshots of conversations and money transfers.

“It was pretty evident that what he was doing was a scam,” Div continued.

“I was extremely angry. We live in America. There have to be consequences. He cannot be getting away with this.”

Div claims he confronted Garcia over text, but he only ever paid back $1,000.

“He kept claiming that the [first] event had been postponed, there are issues, this and that, be patient, until the point he just blocked us,” he said.

“We ended up paying a lot of money to our clients out of pocket that we had saved up. We took a big hit. And then we put in a report with the FBI.

“That was all we could do, but we haven’t heard anything yet from the authorities.

“There was no empathy. It was like he is a complete psychopath.”

The U.S. Sun has seen proof of a complaint lodged by Div’s business partner on their behalf with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, which works with the FBI.

Missing Coachella tickets

Marlen Orozco is a former associate who first met Garcia at the BET Awards in 2020.

She told The U.S. Sun she was left reeling after he apparently ran a scam during Coachella in April last year that led her to cut ties with him.

Garcia told Orozco he had Coachella artist wristbands for sale for $2,000 and artist guest passes available for $1,500, and she could earn a commission, she told The U.S. Sun.

A total of 15 people allegedly paid thousands to Garcia in deposits for the passes but never received them.

The U.S. Sun obtained a 42-page document containing screenshots of texts related to the Coachella wristbands, showing customers begging Garcia to repay the money.

Garcia told Orozco in text messages that he had sent the money to a mystery third party but had not received the passes.

Orozco claims that many of the people flew in from other states and booked accommodation, but they were denied access to the festival.

She believes he used the money to purchase his tickets and accommodation.

“At that point, they thought I was lying, too. I ended up giving my own to one of the people who paid because that’s the least I could have done,” Orozco said.

“He even said to me at one point at Coachella, ‘Why do you even care about what they think? It’s not like you know these people? Why don’t you just block them?’

“Everyone was patient, but nothing was ever refunded.”

Orozco later made a public Instagram post warning others about Garcia when she stopped working with him.

She has since been flooded with messages from Garcia’s previous clients who claimed to have had similar issues with him.

“I learned the truth from everyone else,” she claimed.

“I kind of felt dumb being involved in everything, but I was also p***ed. I was really mad.

“I would describe Christian as the male version of Anna [Delvey], he’s been doing the same thing and continues to be a fraud.

“It needs to be stopped. I feel the only way it will be stopped is in court. He doesn’t learn his lesson.”

The U.S. Sun has viewed screenshots of the chat where alleged victims offered each other advice and discussed how to try to stop Garcia from scamming in the future.

One alleged victim, who has worked in the film industry for years and is a regular at showbiz events in Los Angeles, was introduced to Garcia by Orozco.

She claims she is still out $1,500 after repeatedly asking Garcia to call PayPal to get her money for the wristband sent back.

“He was just lying. I called them, and they said, ‘No, he never called us,’” she said.

“PayPal ended up sending the money back in a week, so he kept the money, of course.”

The alleged victim went on, “Some people were involved in the Coachella situation. Others were for concerts or PR jobs that never happened.

“This guy needs to stop, and someone needs to make him stop.

“He’s still out there going to events, premieres. We have had so many people sending DMs and telling us their stories.”

Bezos blunder

Kevin King said he was connected with Garcia through a mutual friend, who vouched for him and asked if he wanted to buy a ticket for a meet-and-greet with Jeff Bezos.

Documents seen by The U.S. Sun show King conversing with Garcia about the event after paying him $5,000 by credit card around January 2025.

He was allegedly told the “Amazon Creators Event” would take place in Los Angeles on May 29, but a week before, King still didn’t have confirmation and was later told by Garcia that it had been moved to October.

When October rolled around, King says Garcia appeared to be making excuses.

“I was like, ‘This sounds fishy.’” he said. “And I was looking at Jeff Bezos’ schedule. He was in Europe. I was like, I don’t even think this event even exists.”

Amazon has hosted creator summits and events in the past, but there is no proof that Bezos was ever in attendance, and there were no meet-and-greets.

King says he eventually asked for a refund in October, claiming Garcia gave him “excuse after excuse.”

He claims he has since disputed the charge with his credit card company and confronted Garcia that he’s scamming, even posting a message to warn others on social media.

“He’s waiting for the contact or something to actually get back with him, and then I started to threaten him a little bit,” he admitted.

“I was careful with what I said, but just to try to rattle him, and when I couldn’t rattle him, that’s when I knew that this guy is straight up a thief.”

Influencer Jailyne Ojeda, who has 15 million followers on Instagram, previously made claims that appear to have been about Garcia on the Alannized podcast as far back as December 2023.

She alleged she was scammed out of $30,000 while Garcia was working as her publicist.

Although she only refers to him as “Christian” during the interview, The U.S. Sun independently verified that she was talking about Garcia.

Photographs from the period also show them together, with him working as her publicist.

The U.S. Sun has made several attempts to contact Ojeda but has been unable to reach her.

Who is Christian Garcia?

Garcia has been interviewed by the likes of Forbes and Galore Magazine about his work as a fashion influencer, podcaster, and mental health advocate.

He told Forbes in 2020, “I’m from San Luis Obispo, California – a small town in the middle of SF and LA. Fashion is such a rarity that I stood out for taking chances.”

He went on, “At the end of the day don’t care what people say about you. They are just behind a screen wishing they were you.”

The U.S. Sun learned that he has moved to different rental properties in recent months and that he does not appear to have a criminal record.

Sources claim he has owned a white Mercedes, but he often has others drive him to events and is regularly seen in designer clothing, including Gucci belts and expensive jewelry.

As allegations of his scams caught up with him in recent months, he seems to have pivoted to becoming a food influencer, posting videos of himself sampling various dishes at restaurants across California

Will Heffernan, who moved from Los Angeles to Boston, told The U.S. Sun he was aware of Garcia from his time in the city around 2021/2022 and believed he was well-connected.

When he lost access to his Instagram page last year, he reached out to him after hearing he had contacts at the company.

“I asked Christian, ‘Hey, do you know anybody at Meta or Instagram who might be able to help get my account back?’” he said.

“I was willing to possibly pay some money. I sent him $1,350, and then I started to text him every day and follow up with him.”

The U.S. Sun has reviewed screenshots of these messages.

“I eventually spoke to Marlen [Orozco], and she said, ‘He doesn’t have an Instagram rep anymore.’

“I’ve heard stories he’s a scam artist. I just didn’t think he would scam someone on an Instagram account.

“Seeing him and the amount of followers, it’s easy to fall for it.”

Heffernan said he doesn’t see him ever sending the money back and decided not to deal with the stress of fighting it, but he wants to speak out to stop him from targeting anyone else.

He said, “I think he’s just disgusting. He’s in it for himself. He needs to be held accountable. I’m tired of his fakeness.”

‘The biggest scammer in LA’

Hazel Picaso, another alleged victim based in Los Angeles, brought Garcia on board to help promote a song after hearing that he rubbed shoulders with many celebrities.

She claims Garcia told her he could get more than 20 influencers to promote her track on their popular social media accounts while attending a release party.

Picaso claims she paid him $5,000 in total, and only two of the internet stars eventually showed up.

She says she spoke to him, and he was making excuses, and she blasted him for being unprofessional.

Picaso claims he told her, “I have no control over people’s social media. If they don’t want to post, I can’t force them.”

“And that’s when I lost it,” she admitted. “I was like, ‘No, this is your responsibility, you charged me and promised me that those people were going to post my song, that they were going to go to my event.’”

She claims she felt it was “fair” if he at least refunded half of the money she paid him.

“You know what he did? He blocked me,” she told The U.S. Sun.

Asked if she would also describe him as being like Delvey, she replied, “He is, he’s the biggest scammer in LA.”

Alleged victims who used PayPal say they did not push further for refunds from the service because they had paid through the Friends and Family section and claim they were past the deadline after spending weeks begging Garcia for a refund.

A company spokesperson told The U.S. Sun, “PayPal does not tolerate fraudulent activity and we take swift action if accounts are found to violate our policies.”

It added that anyone who believes they have been a target of a scam should contact customer support.

The FBI said it was not able to confirm or deny any investigation into Garcia but also urged anyone who believes they are a victim to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

A spokesman for Zelle warned, “If consumers believe they’ve been scammed, they should contact their bank or credit union immediately so it can investigate and take appropriate action.

“This scheme is a stark and saddening reminder that scams begin with criminals manipulating people long before any money moves.

“Currently, an extremely small number (0.02%) of Zelle transactions result in a fraud or scam report.”