Giovanni Pernice has shared a warning to his followers, after a fan was scammed out of £3,000.
The Strictly Come Dancing star revealed that a fan of his recently sent someone impersonating him thousands of pounds.
The 32-year-old spoke out about the worrying incident on Instagram and confirmed that a similar incident has happened a "few times before."
He described how a scammer, pretending to be him, will convince adoring fans to send money, possibly in exchange to meet him.
Posting a video to Instagram about the incident, he captioned the warning: “Please listen carefully to this message! Let’s not let them get away with it again! Love you all.”
The professional dancer and former Strictly winner said: "I love social media so I’m here to really talk about an issue that happened a few times before.
"This morning I arrived at the theatre and reception called and said, 'there is this young lady waiting for you downstairs', because apparently I gave her a time and a place to meet.
"She said we spoke last night, you spoke to me, we did FaceTime, we exchanged pictures."
Giovanni added: "The most horrible thing is the fact that she sent £3,000 to this person that’s pretending to be me, well this criminal that’s pretending to be me."
He added: “Now, I know that Instagram and any other social media platform, is a huge platform, but they’re also very, very dangerous.”
In the post, Giovanni apologised to the victim of the scam and stressed that other fans should not interact with any other Giovanni accounts unless it's through his verified account or his agent.
He continued: "I’m very sorry if any viewers have been in this situation before, but I’m just trying to prevent what’s going to be the future as well.
"It’s bad, because this morning was very sad seeing this woman very upset."
Fans have rushed to offer support to Giovanni, who was clearly upset by the incident.
One fan said: "I hope the lady is okay. Sending her lots of love. & well done Gio for filming this message – hopefully the more awareness that there is of these scams, the safer people will stay."
Another added: "Well done Giovanni for speaking out. Its not only you but many other celebs that are facing the same issue. However, some do nothing to protect their fans and stay quiet. Credit to you."
While a third commented: "Unfortunately there are some not so very nice people out there and they take advantage of people.
"Social media can be great on times but when things like this happen it’s not so great. Keep your wits about you everyone…no one will ever ask you for money let alone a celebrity! Well done for doing this informative video to make everyone aware of what has happened."
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