As a Strictly champion, Giovanni Pernice is beloved among viewers of the show, and on Friday the dancer took to Instagram to warn his adoring fans of a scam that saw one of his followers conned out of £3,000.
"I'm here to talk about an issue that's happened a few times before now," Giovanni began. "This morning I arrived at the theatre and reception called to tell me there was a young lady waiting downstairs for me, because apparently I gave her a time and a place to meet.
"She said we'd spoken last night on Facetime and exchanged pictures, and she sent £3,000 to a criminal pretending to be me," Giovanni shared, explaining that his fan had been talking to someone pretending to be him on Instagram, watch his full statement below.
"Instagram is very very dangerous," the dancer continued. "If you want to engage in conversation with me, this is the only profile I've got. I'm very sorry if any of you have been in this situation before," he said, before adding: "This morning was very sad, seeing this woman very upset."
Giovanni's followers rushed to sympathise with him, writing: "Well done Giovanni for speaking out. It's 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," and: "I hope the lady is okay. Sending her lots of love and well done Gio for filming this message - hopefully the more awareness that there is of these scams, the safer people will stay."
© Ash Knotek/ShutterstockGio's fellow Strictly star Shirley Ballas sent her love too, writing: "Very sad indeed."
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Others said they had also spoken to fake accounts claiming to be Giovanni. "It's terrible what some people will do, I also was contacted by a person claiming to be Giovanni, he also had Giovanni's, profile picture but thankfully I noticed there was no blue tick so I blocked them."
© GettyAnother added: "Many of us are contacted by 'celebrities' and it takes a moment or two to realise that the account is not real."
Gio captioned his video: " lease listen carefully to this message! Let’s not let them get away with it again! Love you all," and shared it on his stories too to spread the word further.
Here's hoping the kind-hearted star isn't feeling too downbeat after his ordeal, and that his fan is comforted by his gesture.
