Zoe Ball’s son Woody Cook has revealed that the police are investigating an alleged stalker who he claimed impersonated him online to tell strangers about intimate details of his sex life
Zoe Ball‘s son has revealed that police are looking into an alleged stalker who reportedly impersonated him online. Woody Cook, 25, claimed via instagram that a “creepy” person had been “catfishing” strangers online by pretending to be him and telling those people about his sex life.
The Celebrity Gogglebox star reported the alleged catfish to police, which prompted a formal investigation. He claimed the unnamed person terrorised him and others “more than 20 times”.
In an instagram story, Woody said: “Just FYI Catfishing as someone and talking nonsense about their sex life to strangers is creepy, immoral and illegal.” He encouraged them to seek therapy and claimed that this person was creating fake online profiles using Woody’s identity on social media platforms and messaging apps.
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Woody shared a screenshot of one of the messages that were shared by a fake account. It read: “Hey man, hope I’m ok to hyu [hit you up] on here. Just been looking at your prints again, super talented! Might have some artwork I’d like done for my festivals this year. Would you be interested? Woody x”
Over the top, Woody said: “This is not me! Someone is pretending to be me. Please don’t fall for it! Super weird. It’s a stalker (And I will be making a police enquiry because he’s done this to me and other people 20+ times and I’m done being polite.”
A spokesperson for the 25-year-old also told the Daily Mail: “We have been made aware that an individual has been contacting people online and claiming to be Woody. We have reported this to the police, and an investigation is underway. As such, we are unable to provide any further comment.”
Catfishing is legal under current UK law, as there are no specific provisions against online impersonation in the existing laws regarding malicious communication. But catfishers can be prosecuted under fraud laws if they receive money, and harassment laws and data protection laws.
Campaigners have been pushing to make catfishing a specific criminal offence. A petition for the law to recognise how impersonating someone online can cause harm was launched in March.
Instagram, the primary app where the person Woody claims is stalking him and catfishing others, has policies against impersonation and users can report accounts as fake, but some have said the platform has not acted quickly enough to protect victims in the past.
Woody is the son of Zoe and Norman Cook, aka Fatboy Slim. The pair split in 2016 after 18 years of marriage but lived next door to each other while they co-parented Woody and his sister Nelly.
Last year, Woody, who is a DJ like his dad, told OK! about his family: “It’s pretty good, for a half-estranged family unit. Not a lot of turmoil at the moment. We are very excited, the four of us. Not that we are actually “a family”. They are still very much not together. As much as the papers keep trying to insinuate they’re back together. Just to clarify that!”
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