"Naga Munchetti: This is the most humiliating day of my life. Yesterday's news shocked the whole of the UK."
The headline was enough to make me want to read more – but the fact they had spelled my name wrong made me immediately question the credibility of the journalism involved – if there was any.
I'm used to seeing misleading articles about myself online, but the screenshots I've been sent by friends and followers on social media in recent weeks are a lot more insidious than most.
Paid-for advertisements are popping up across X and Facebook, some including crudely mocked-up images of me naked – my face badly photoshopped onto someone else's body.
I was both mortified and bemused, curious about who would pay good money to spread such obvious nonsense. And what was their motive? Is it something malicious? Someone with an axe to grind?
I discussed it with my 5 Live production team, and we began to dig into it more. It soon became apparent that my name and image were being used by scammers to try to hoodwink people out of money.
Clicking on the adverts took you through to a fake news article, complete with BBC logo and imagery.
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...
In 2024, the government and whistleblowers were party to 558 settlements and judgments collecting over $2.9 billion. The government continued its effort to combat cybersecurity threats through its...