Channel 7 issues statement after Home and Away fans were fooled by cruel cancer scam

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Channel 7 has warned fans of soap opera Home and Away not to believe everything they read. 

The popular show has been targeted by scams on social media. Fake Facebook pages are appearing and spreading made-up stories about the actors, misleading viewers.

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.  

These fake pages have spread false stories, including a claim that actress Jessica Redmayne has cancer.

The scam pages also falsely claimed Hailey Pinto was getting married and showed Emily Wier announcing a new relationship, both of which were untrue.

A Seven spokesperson told The Daily Telegraph this weekend that they have reported the unofficial pages.

Fans of Home and Away were advised to only interact with official accounts belonging to the show and its actors.

A Meta spokesman also promised the company would, ‘remove any content that violates our policies.’ 

Following the tragic passing of Married At First Sight star Mel Schilling, a misleading AI-generated message pretending to be from her circulated online and quickly gained widespread attention.

The dating expert and psychologist from Australia passed away on Tuesday at the age of 54. This came only days after she shared that her bowel cancer had spread to her brain.

Almost immediately after the news was released, a fake TikTok video pretending to be a last message from her family began circulating online, shared by many fans who didn’t realize it was false.

The video features a clip with a voice that sounds like Mel, created using AI. It’s set to a collection of her personal photos, clips from her TV shows, and images from magazine photoshoots.

The eerie video featured a voice saying, ‘If you’re seeing this, it means there’s nothing left to do for me.’

The TikTok account that originally shared the content features several comparable videos, including a misleading clip presented as a final message from the late actor James Van Der Beek.

These videos have likely earned hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars by exploiting a tragic situation due to their widespread popularity and high viewer numbers.

But it has sparked a backlash from outraged fans.

‘How disrespectful to Mel. This is poor taste and has no place here,’ said one.

It’s really upsetting to see things like this. It makes you lose faith in what you read online, and it’s hard to understand why people act this way.

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2026-03-29 11:18