Strictly Come Dancing winner Ore Oduba has said he feels “ashamed and embarrassed” after falling victim to an online scam.
The BBC presenter took to Instagram last night (July 20) to share his story of how he believed he was contacted by American life coach and podcaster Mel Robbins.
Ore has previously said during a Loose Women appearance that the self-help author’s 2024 release The Let Them Theory “changed his life”.
Having previously fronted BBC documentary series Claimed And Shamed, Ore revealed that someone claiming to be Mel contacted him through his email.
He said: "I could have cried - they knew who I was! I got an email from the Mel Robbins podcast team…I told Mel everything.
“How she had changed my life. And I literally said at the end of the email, even for you to know who I am, is everything. Thank you so much for getting in touch.”
Clearly emotional, Ore revealed that the person emailing him invited him to appear on Mel’s podcast, which has more than 20 million subscribers.
Ore, 39, recalled: “I'm reading this back and I know exactly how it made me feel at the time. I wrote back and I said, ‘Mel, I'm holding back tears. Is this for real? You must have AI helping you correspond with all of these fans’.
“Mel wrote back, ‘of course it's me - it's Mel Robbins!’ So then I lost my s**t, I absolutely lost my s**t, in tears on an Avanti West Coast train from Birmingham to London, thinking that my whole life was about to change.”
He continued: “By the way, I used to host a show about scammers. I have watched enough Watchdog to last a lifetime - that doesn't stop me being in the middle of it. I never thought I'd be the person that would be scammed.'”
Ore realised that Mel contacting him was too good to be true when he realised her name was spelt wrong in the Gmail account and quickly contacted her PR team.
Ore’s caption for the post read: “I’m ashamed, I’m embarrassed and I’m human. Did not think I would be the kind of person who could be scammed, but this proves it really can happen to anyone.
“Especially with the help and manipulation of AI. I’m terrified how easily I was ‘hooked’. It was SO convincing, it’s scary… I’ve made no secret of how much Mel Robbins, her book and podcast have helped me through a really difficult period.
“Truth is I turned an emotional blind eye to something I so deeply wanted to believe was for me and nearly got myself into a whole heap of trouble (sidenote.. I’ve realised in making this video how often we do the same thing in relationships too!).”
Urging his fans to “listen to their gut”, Ore admitted that being scammed is “no fun”, but he is “still inspired and loves Mel Robbins”.
He concluded the post: “So grateful to them for their swift response. I got lucky - it could so easily have been too late.”
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When did Ore win Strictly?
Ore competed on the 14th season of the dancing competition with professional dancer Joanne Clifton in 2016.
An audience of more than 13 million watched him and partner Joanne Clifton crowned champions in 2016, the most watched final in Strictly history at the time.
From 2008 until 2013, Ore presented the CBBC news programme Newsround.
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