Woman says she warned 49ers about impersonator months before arrest
The short version
- Gwen Herndon says she emailed the 49ers about Daejon Love in December 2025
- Love was arrested August 24 and charged with wire fraud and conspiracy
- The 49ers say they learned of the activity from the FBI in August
- Prosecutors allege Love defrauded at least 26 women of roughly $1.3 million
- The FBI says 35 more victims have been identified since the arrest
An Oregon woman says she emailed the 49ers in December 2025 about a man posing as a player, while the team says the FBI first alerted it in August.
A 24-year-old Oregon real estate agent, Gwen Herndon, told ESPN she emailed the San Francisco 49ers in December 2025 about Daejon Love, a man who allegedly posed as a 49ers wide receiver. Love was arrested on August 24 and charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Herndon said she gave Love more than $10,000 for what he described as an investment, and that he vanished when she sought repayment. She sued him in small claims court in March 2025, filed a police report in Eugene, Oregon, and started a Facebook group to alert other potential victims. Love is accused of defrauding at least 26 women of a reported $1.3 million.
In her email, Herndon wrote that a federal investigation involved a man pretending to be a 49ers player who was damaging the team's reputation. The team replied that legal constraints prevented comment on ongoing investigations and encouraged her to contact law enforcement.
The 49ers said last month they had received no reports of Love's activity until the FBI notified them in August. The FBI's Portland office opened its investigation in September 2024, and special agent in charge Doug Olson said investigators have identified another 35 victims since the arrest.
Herndon told ESPN she accepted the team's response at the time but was unsure her email was escalated as she had hoped. She added that she considered the 49ers, in their own way, a victim of the scheme.
