Channel 7 has warned fans of soap opera Home and Away not to believe everything they read.
The long-running series has been at the centre of a series of social media scams, with fake pages springing up on Facebook targeting viewers with entirely invented claims about the show’s actors.
The posts invite users to click a link to ‘continue reading’ the sensationalist, untrue stories.
Those who do click through may be exposed to phishing scams that access users’ personal details.
Channel 7 has been scrambling to get the pages removed, but they are springing up like weeds.
Stories on these fake pages have included false claims that actress Jessica Redmayne has been diagnosed with cancer.
Other false claims have been made about Hailey Pinto, who the scam pages alleged was planning to marry, and Emily Wier, who was shown announcing a ‘new relationship’.
‘These unauthorised pages have been reported,’ a Seven spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph this weekend.
Home and Away fans were encouraged ‘to engage only with verified accounts for the show and cast members’.
A Meta spokesman also promised the company would, ‘remove any content that violates our policies.’
It comes after a fake AI message from beyond the grave supposedly from Married At First Sight star Mel Schilling fooled fans and went viral just hours after her tragic death.
The Australian psychologist turned dating expert died on Tuesday, aged 54, just days after she revealed her bowel cancer had spread to her brain.
Within hours of the announcement, a TikTok video falsely claiming to be a final message released by her family was unwittingly shared widely online by fans.
Using an AI-generated voice mimicking Mel, the clip plays over a montage of her personal photos, TV appearances and magazine shoots.
If you are watching this video it means there is nothing more that can be done for me,’ the haunting disembodied voice said on the fake video.
The TikTok account where it first began also boasts multiple similar clips including one falsely claiming to be a final message from the late US actor James Van Der Beek.
Because of their huge viewing figures and engagement, the videos will have generated hundreds hundreds – and possibly thousands – of dollars by cashing in on the grief.
But it has sparked a backlash from outraged fans.
‘How disrespectful to Mel. This is poor taste and has no place here,’ said one.
‘This is disgraceful. What is wrong with people? I feel like I cannot believe anything online anymore.’
