This Morning's Ashley James targeted in AI weight-loss scam
Ashley James has been left "so upset" after discovering that her face is being used as part of a weight loss scam. The former Made In Chelsea star, 38, is known for discussing current affairs on This Morning and was horrified to learn that her image had been used to front a campaign claiming she had lost just under two stone in a month.
As part of the video, an AI- generated version of Ashley is sitting on the This Morning set, chatting to Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard as normal, but the reality star, 38, insisted that she would never endorse any such product to begin with but wanted viewers to know it was all completely false.
Speaking on Tuesday's edition of the ITV magazine show, she said: "People kept forwarding it to me but I couldn't view it. This is you interviewing me on that sofa. Isn't that so scary? That's not me speaking, that's not you speaking and a company is on these social media websites with a link encouraging people to buy weight loss [treatment].
• This Morning's Ashley James breaks down in tears over Andrew as she speaks for survivors
• Dragons' Den Sara Davies 'devastated' as she issues warning to fans
"I feel so upset about it is because I would never, ever promote any weight loss product but the fact that they're using credibility of This Morning and your voice, it's so sad to me that people will be buying this product which is completely made up."
Ashley is not the only celebrity whose image has been manipulated in to sell a false weight loss product. Last year, businesswoman Sara Davies, best known for her role as Dragon's Den and now as the presenter of new game show Time is Money, begged her social media followers not to fall for the scam.
She wrote on Instagram: "Yes this is a SCAM,". "They are all scams….. there are dozens of them going round and every day I’m hearing anecdotally from different friends, 'So and so has asked me to get you to check with Sara if those slimming pills she’s invested in are any good'.
"Honestly I’m devastated - the thought that people are getting scammed out of so much money or worse they could actually send for something and be ingesting some random pills when they don’t know what’s in them.
"People are doing it because they think I said it was good - it boils my blood!" Sara previously that she'd gone from a size 16 to a 12 after significant weight loss. Although she's since become a public advocate for healthy living and nutritious recipes, she insisted there is no 'magic pill' to do it all for you."
Around the same time, Coronation Street actress Sue Cleaver, who left her signature role as Eileen Grimshaw on the ITV soap last year before becoming a regular on Loose Women, spoke out about how awful she felt when she learned people had spent money after believing she had endorsed such a product.
During an appearance on the lunchtime chat show, she said: "It's mortifying, the amount of messages I have had on Instagram, saying: 'I've spent over £100 on these items based on that [the scam videos].
"All I can do is apologise, I have put things out on social media, as me, saying: 'It's not me, if it's not off my official site with a tick, I guarantee it's not going to be me.' At the moment, there is nothing to protect any of us. We're at the very beginning of AI... and it terrifies me.
"You know, it actually makes me feel physically sick when I see it and my heart sinks when I get a message through saying: 'Oh, just so you know, this is on Facebook, is this you?' and I think: 'Oh, not again! Not again' because all they do is close it down and open up another one."
*Follow Mirror Celebs on TikTok,