James Martin forced to issue urgent warning to fans as he pleads ‘be safe’ over worrying scam
James Martin has taken to social media to plead with his followers to “stay safe” and remain vigilant after a series of convincing imposters have appeared online.
The ITV chef took to Instagram to share a series of slides showing scammers’ profiles who’ve pretended to be both him and members of his management team.
James Martin has been forced to warn his fans about scammers
ITV
“My team is blocking and reporting multiple accounts across social media daily. Many have been closed.
“However, new ones pop up all the time. They scrape images and content from my official accounts, in many cases, in an attempt to look legitimate. The accounts and pages shown here are just a small selection of what we have seen and reported lately.
“As I have posted before…neither my management team or me will ever ask you to follow a ‘private fans page’, target you with requests via comments you leave on posts, ask you to transfer money, send personal information or buy vouchers etc.”
He went on to clarify: “I do not endorse the product shown in the pics here and I do not have a Telegram account or a ‘private fans page’.”
As he drew to a close, Martin urged: “Please only follow my official accounts. My meta accounts have blue ticks and you can check links to all my official accounts via the social media links shown at the bottom of my website.
“Please report and block any accounts or pages with suspicious posts, comments or direct messaging activity.
“Above all, stay safe and please do not give personal information to accounts like these.”
Before long, Martin’s fans rushed to the comments of the post to thank the TV chef for the heads up while others slammed the scammers for their sophisticated money-making ploys.
James Martin took to social media to warn his followers
ITV/GETTY
“Scammers are the lowest,” one follower hit out before a second branded the ordeal: “Unbelievable.”
“Why why why do people do this?” a third asked while a fourth added: “I report and block at least 10 a week , it’s just ridiculous.”
Meanwhile, a fifth blasted: “I have had numerous requests, I delete, report and block them all! Some people have nothing better to do!”
And another echoed: “James I have no idea what kind of planet some people live and how they have time?? These are unscrupulous scammers who pray on people. I get so many phoney requests from these individuals and they seem so convincing.” (sic)
