Sandra Bullock Reveals the ‘Harm’ That Drove Her to Join Social Media After Scammers Targeted Fans

Sandra Bullock shared what made her decide to join Instagram earlier this year during her Aug. 17 appearance on ‘SmartLess.’ The actress noted that she only joined the platform in an effort to help prevent fans of hers from being fooled by scammers posing as her with fake accounts.

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Sandra Bullock shared what made her decide to join Instagram earlier this year during her Aug. 17 appearance on SmartLess

Bullock has racked up more than six million followers on the social media platform since she formally joined it in April

The actress’ new movie with Nicole Kidman, Practical Magic 2, is in theaters Sept. 11

Sandra Bullock is explaining what finally drove her to join Instagram.

Bullock, 62, joined social media in earnest for the first time earlier this year when she launched her own Instagram account, which many saw as an effort to help promote her upcoming movie Practical Magic 2, which releases in September. But when the Academy Award winner appeared on SiriusXM’s SmartLess podcast with hosts Will Arnett, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes on Monday, Aug. 17 to discuss the anticipated sequel, her life and career, the Oscar winner clarified that she joined social media largely to try and stave off scammers from using fake profiles to trick fans into giving money away.

“About a year and a half ago, I had to because there were people that were using my name and likeness to scam money out of people. My sister would have people reaching out to her saying, ‘Your sister took thousands of dollars from me,’” she told cohost Hayes, 56, of joining the platform.

“The harm that it was causing, families going ‘We don’t know how to tell this person it’s fake,’ and I would have people call them saying ‘It’s fake, it’s not real,’” she added. “I had no intention of ever going on social media. It was never my calling. And then once I did that, it stopped a little bit, but it doesn’t really. It’s just never-ending.”

Bullock previously told PEOPLE in a February 2025 statement that she held a “deep concern” for the well-being of people being targeted by scammers, as well as her own family’s safety in relation to these incidents. In January 2025, a woman in France was swindled out of over $800,000 by scammers posing as Brad Pitt who made her believe she was dating him and that he needed help paying for medical care. And this past January, Reese Witherspoon also cautioned fans against engaging with fake accounts using her name and likeness.

The Blind Side star has shared a total of 14 posts to her official Instagram account since she first posted a quick video back in April. Most recently, she shared a carousel of photos on Wednesday, Aug. 19, captioned “Friends, family, fun, fishies, furries, aaaand work,” including photos snapped with SmartLess‘ Bateman, 57, summer adventures, pics from the new Practical Magic sequel and a look at her laptop and microphone setup for her remote SmartLess appearance.

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During the conversation on SmartLess, Bullock also noted that she feels the original Practical Magic — a 1998 movie in which she and Nicole Kidman — play sisters and witches Gillian and Sally, who fight off a curse that results in the deaths of men in their life whom women in their family fall in love with —has gained popularity over the years through social media. “For the audience to find it, we needed social media so they could find each other, and all of a sudden through social media, everyone found each other,” she added. “Then generation after generation, my generation grew up and they had children and they watched it with their mothers and their grandmothers and their kids.”

“There are kids that are 10 going, ‘Oh my God, it’s my favorite movie because I watched it with my mom and my grandmother,’” Bullock said. “We don’t get a lot of multigenerational things like that. So that was a surprise to me and all of us, I think.”

Practical Magic 2 is in theaters Sept. 11. The sequel also stars Joey King, Maisie Williams, Xolo Maridueña, Solly McLeod, Stockard Channing, Dianne Wiest and Lee Pace.

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