EastEnders' Jake Wood issues furious warning as imposter tries to scam his fans
Jake Wood was left furious when an imposter started posing as him on Instagram and messaging his fans.
The EastEnders star, who recently quit his role as Max Branning, issued a warning to his devoted supporters, asking them to report the fake account.
The 48-year-old wasn’t happy when he discovered the fake Jake was sending private messages.
He shared a screenshot of the account, with the handle @mr_jakewood, that was pretending to be the real deal.
The bio stated he was an actor and even linked to Jake’s boxing podcast and his representative to try and look more authentic.
The profile picture was of Jake but no other posts had been made when the star took a screenshot of it, and the account only had one follower.
(Image: BBC/Kieron McCarron/Jack Barnes)
But Jake was concerned that the person behind it was reaching out to his fans in direct messages.
He penned: “It has come to my attention that this cretin @mr_jakewood is messaging a lot of my followers pretending to be me. Please report & block. Thanks”
Fans told him that the account holder had tried to dupe them.
One wrote: “i had this too, my heart skipped a beat at the thought of you following me”
“Yer he messaged me,” another posted.
Many of his followers reported the account as he wished and it has since been removed from the social media site.
The drama comes not long after Jake stepped down from his role on the BBC soap.
On December 18, he shared a video from the set as he filmed his final scenes.
He wrote: “That’s a wrap. After 15 years on Albert Square it’s finally time to say goodbye to Max Branning today. I will miss Eastenders and the people here so much. Thanks to everyone for all your support”
(Image: Instagram)
Jake is far from the first celeb whose name has been used by imposters.
Sky News presenter and former Olympic gymnast Jacquie Beltrao also posted last night that a fake “private page” was messaging her followers and asking for money.
Sharing a screenshot of the account, she urged: “PLEASE everyone this is someone impersonating me for money – I do not have a private account – they have copied all my content please DO NOT interact with them – I have reported it to Instagram”
A similar thing happened to Gogglebox star Sophie Sandiford last month.
She sent out a message to her followers, saying: “Sorry if anyone has been receiving messages from a fake account this evening.
“Thankfully I think the account has been taken down.”