An impostor posing as Love Island’s ‘Muggy’ Mike Thalassitis urged a young model to send naked pictures of herself in the bath, MailOnline can reveal today.
Lucy Turner, 23, who has appeared on TOWIE and in a One Direction music video, says she was lured in after being offered £2,000 to go on the Celebs Go Dating show as part of a chilling online scam.
A bogus researcher for the hit E4 programme first contacted her via Instagram asking if she wanted to appear on TV.
She was then contacted via WhatsApp by someone pretending to be Mr Thalassitis who praised her ‘sexy a***’ and then urged her to send lewd pictures so he could ‘check her out’.
An impostor posing as Love Island’s ‘Muggy’ Mike Thalassitis (left) urged Lucy Turner (right) to send naked pictures of herself in the bath, MailOnline can reveal today
But unknown to the impostor Miss Turner knows Mike’s manager Dave Reid who quickly confirmed that his client was not sending her the messages.
The makers of Celebs Go Dating have since confirmed that the Instagram profile claiming to be from their team was also fake and will be taken down by the photo-based social network.
Miss Turner has spoken out because she fears that others could be lured into sending explicit messages to the fake ‘Mike’ hoping they could win a date.
She told MailOnline: ‘I’m worried that others might be drawn into this and not know it is fake. I want to warn young girls and boys that that they could find themselves in quite dangerous situations.
‘It all seemed really professional. I wasn’t suspicious until they suddenly offered me £2,000 and asked me to sign a contract because shows like this often only pay for your travel.
‘I then started getting messages from someone saying they were Mike and asking for pictures in the bath. I then knew something was wrong.
Miss Turner has spoken out because she fears that others could be lured into sending explicit messages to the fake ‘Mike’ hoping they could win a date
Unknown to the impostor Miss Turner knows Mike’s manager Dave Reid who quickly confirmed that his client was not sending her the messages
‘Luckily I know Mike’s manager and he confirmed it wasn’t him – but I worry that others would never know’.
Last month it emerged that Mike Thalassitis planned to look for love on Celebs Go Dating next year.
The reality star, 24, has been signed up by for the E4 show to ‘help him find something serious’ after a series of high profile flings.
He was one of Love Island’s breakout stars after he tried to steal Chris Hughes’ girlfriend Olivia Atwood and then flirted with Caroline Flack after being booted off the show after just one week.
Miss Turner, from Benfleet, Essex, is a model and actress who has appeared in several TV shows and pop videos.
A bogus researcher for the hit E4 programme first contacted Miss Turner via Instagram asking if she wanted to appear on TV
She initially thought nothing of being contacted about appearing on Celebs Go Dating having previously applied for the show.
An Instagram account under the name Emma Wilder followed her and they exchanged messages and confirmed the production company wanted to take part on the back of Mr Thalassitis’ involvement.
She was offered £2,000 as a fee and asked if she was willing to sign a contract to confirm her place.
‘Emma’ then asked for modelling pictures to send to ‘Mike’ for approval and was then asked if she would share her phone number with the star.
A WhatsApp conversation then started where she wastold by someone pretending to be Mike: ‘Yes babe! Got your hot a*** on Celebs go Dating!’ and asking her: ‘What are you doing?’
She then said she was in the bath and got the reply: ‘You don’t realise what thoughts that’s put in my head’ and ‘you wanna send a pic?’.
Miss Turner then became suspicious and asked if he was in Snapchat to confirm who it was and then contacted Mike’s manager who said it wasn’t the reality star’s number.
The messenger urged her to send photos and she messaged him to say: ‘I know this isn’t Mike you’ve been found out’ and hasn’t had a reply back.
She was offered £2,000 as a fee and asked if she was willing to sign a contract to confirm her place
Miss Turner, from Benfleet, Essex, is a model and actress who has appeared in several TV shows and pop videos
Today the Celebs Go Dating production team confirmed it was nothing to do with them or Margate footballer and ladies’ man Mike.
Impersonating somebody – other than a police officer – is not illegal in the UK, but securing sexual photos by deception could be.
The bogus Instagram page set up by the fake researcher is being shut down by the makers of the hit show.
A spokesman for Celebs Go Dating said: ‘We have been made aware of a fake instagram account with someone impersonating a member of our production team.
‘The account has been reported to Instagram and we hope it will be removed imminently’.
Referring to the WhatsApp conversation she added: ‘We can confirm these messages were not sent by Mike’.
The WhatsApp conversation with ‘Muggy Mike’ wannabe
The con started with a bogus researcher for the hit E4 programme Celebs Go Dating contacting her via Instagram asking if she wanted to appear on TV.
An elongated conversation took place, in which Miss Turner was asked what set her apart from other girls, and arrangements were made about when she would appear on the show.
She agreed to stay single until the episode was filmed – and it was arranged that she would appear on the show with Mr Thalassitis.
Extracts of their chat are shown below.
Then she received a WhatsApp message from someone claiming to be the Love Island star.
The imposter started flirting with Miss Turner and joking about the date that E4 were arranging with them.
Miss Turner was encouraged to send over pictures of her in the bath, but Miss Turner wants to check that the exchange is legitimate.
In just over an hour from when the conversation started, she had managed to confirm that the person was not who they claimed to be.
This was their short-lived conversation in full.
