The fake article about me suggested I had been detained by the government following a “controversial” interview on ITV’s This Morning, where I allegedly gave details about a “lucrative loophole” to make money.
It was made to look like a BBC News article, complete with logo and branding, and it contained links to a scam cyber trading website, which has now been taken down after my production team reported it to the BBC legal team.
I’m not the first high-profile face to be used by scammers to trick people out of their hard-earned money.
My fellow 5 Live presenter and Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis, has previously spoken out about his face being used to front cryptocurrency scams.
Wildlife TV presenter Chris Packham told me he first saw fake articles about himself appearing on social media two years ago.
“Recently I opened an account with Bluesky and within hours there were fake accounts re-posting these scams from other platforms,” he said.
“The ones on Bluesky were a bit more sophisticated in that scammers set up a ‘conservation fund’ with my identity and did some research and directly sent it to lawyers who I work with on environmental projects asking for ‘donations’
“On a personal level this affects my credibility as an environmentalist and campaigner. As a communicator you need trust and for people to believe what you’re saying and know I’m telling the truth and this impacts that.
“I hate the idea of my image being used to scam, it’s abjectly terrible.”
