The goal of an influencer is to gain as large a following as you can, but for Hailey Ostrom, one follower took things way too far.
The pro golfer/influencer shared a “scary” situation on her Instagram account on Saturday that hit a bit too close to home – literally.
The 30-year-old Ostrom revealed that an overzealous fan had tracked her down, showing up at a golf course where she had been playing and then later at her house.
Ostrom, who boasts roughly 1.5 million followers across her social media platforms, said that the man initially went to a golf course that she regularly frequents looking for her. The club contacted Ostrom to inform her, but she didn’t recognize the name and brushed it off as a follower.
However, the incident escalated when the same individual showed up at her house on Friday night, having allegedly “abused his job” to learn her address.
“It was a very scary situation for me and I have never had anything like that happen before,” Ostrom said.
She said she messaged her parents to call the police before the man eventually left on his own without making any threats.
It was later learned that the man had allegedly fallen victim to a scam. He had been messaging a fake profile posing as Ostrom and that person had asked him to send $50,000 US before ending contact.
The man was furious after the account stopped messaging, leading him to track down Ostrom, who he believed he had been contacting.
“As you can imagine, I don’t know his intentions and because of some of the situations that I’ve had in my past with some followers, I was very skeptical and scared and not going to take any risks,” Ostrom said.
Ostrom warned her followers to watch out for such scams and that she has reported “hundreds” of imposter accounts.
“A very scary situation for me. As a reminder: I will NEVER message you asking you to follow me on another page or another platform,” she captioned the post. “I will NEVER ask you for money. All of my accounts are linked on my website (haileyostrom.com). Please @instagram @meta @tiktok @facebook, remove these fake pages!”
Ostrom, who is married to U.S. Olympic snowboarder Louie Vito, said that she is taking precautions after the incident.
“I never want to feel scared or feel like my privacy has been taken away ever again,” she added. “So I am taking the necessary precautions to make sure that I am even safer in my own home.
“I really appreciate all of my followers who respect my privacy and who don’t do anything crazy like that.”
Ostrom received support from none other than the queen of golf influencers herself, Paige Spiranac.
Spiranac, who also has experienced the violation of scammers using her likeness, commented on the post: “I don’t know how many restraining orders or events like this need to happen before the platforms start taking this seriously.”