With the rise of online scams and deepfakes circulating on social media, Dr Punam Krishan once admitted she was “deeply concerned.”

Known for her appearances on the BBC One’s Morning Live, the GP made her Strictly Come Dancing debut back in September, 2024, and has even managed to avoid the competition’s first elimination last week.

This Saturday, the Glasgow-born TV star will be back on the dancefloor once more with professional partner Gorka Marquez. But with fame sometimes comes danger as Punam, 41, once admitted she’d fallen victim to online scammers, which has since led her to warn other about the harmful potential of social media.

Dr Punam Krishan has been partnered up with Gorka Marquez for Strictly’s 20th anniversary season ( 
Image:
BBC/Guy Levy)

Punam once warned her fans about the dangers of social media as online scammers have taken pictures of her and her family to prey on them ( 
Image:
@drpunamkrishan/Instagram)
Taking to her column with the iPaper, Dr Punam Krishan penned: “Barely a day goes by before I receive a message from a follower on social media informing me of a fake account using my images to spam them.”

She then shared her “worry” over the prominence of “deepfakes” online as she disclosed that scammers often steal pictures from her social media account, which sometimes include members of her family, to spread misinformation online. Punam opened up about the “distress” scams trigger: “‘It is distressing to hear from followers who have received messages from fake accounts pretending to be me.”

“I worry about the implications of this a lot. I immediately block and report these accounts, and I also advise my followers to do the same, but I still feel anxious about how far and wide they have travelled.” She continued: “What if someone has fallen for it, has transferred money or worse – taken the ill-informed advice and become unwell as a result?”

In more recent news, Dr Punam Krishan revealed that the Strictly chaos and pressure were nothing she couldn’t overcome as she spoke about the reality of juggling her job with her family life – and raising her children.

“I often feel like a character in Motherland,” she said. “When I turn up at work I feel in utter control, but there is so much childcare chaos behind the scenes, the before-and-after work rush of making sure you get to your kids on time, that you’re present for them when you go and meet them and they don’t see how stressful it’s been – that in itself is an art”, she once said.

This Saturday, Dr Punam Krishan will deliver a Bollywood performance with her dancing partner Gorka Marquez for the first time in Strictly Come Dancing history as part of Movie Week. The pair will dance to the tune of ‘Bole Chudiyan’, from the movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham.