"Is it something malicious? Someone with an axe to grind?”
Naga Munchetty spoke out after discovering fake nude pictures of her had been shared online to scam people.
The 49-year-old said she was alerted to the fake images by friends and followers who had sent screenshots of paid-for adverts appearing on social media.
Some included “crudely mocked-up images of me naked – my face badly photoshopped onto someone else’s body”.
Writing an article for BBC News, Naga said she was “both mortified and bemused, curious about who would pay good money to spread such obvious nonsense”.
She added: “And what was their motive? Is it something malicious? Someone with an axe to grind?”
The BBC Breakfast presenter said she discussed it with colleagues who helped her look into it further.
“It soon became apparent that my name and image were being used by scammers to try to hoodwink people out of money.”
People clicking the adverts were taken to a fake news article, complete with a BBC logo and images.
Naga Munchetty continued: “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.”
Naga said she was “lucky” that the BBC legal department acted quickly in getting the fake ads removed due to copyright laws.
However, she has been warned that “another website is likely to pop up soon enough”.
She added that getting ads removed from X “has become more difficult since it changed ownership”.
Naga Munchetty is not the only celebrity to have been targeted in these types of scams.
She referenced Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and TV presenter Chris Packham as other victims.
While Naga found such articles and fake images being circulated “mildly upsetting”, her “main motivation for speaking out about them is to try to stop anyone handing over any money or personal information to these scammers”.
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