ABC/Instagram Clayton Echard.
The new star of “The Bachelor” hasn’t even officially been announced by ABC yet, and it looks like there’s already some drama.
Clayton Echard had someone replicate his Instagram account, and pretend to be him, even messaging women on the social media site, this according to Reality Steve.
Additionally, the imposter created a Snapchat account, pretending to be Clayton, and posted a link to his Instagram Stories for fans to follow.
Reality Steve reports that this person has done this on more than one occasion to more than one “Bachelor” star. Fortunately, the fake account has already been removed from Instagram, but not before several people fell for the fake Clayton. Reality Steve shared a few screenshots of conversations that some women had with the fake Clayton, who apparently sent private messages to a few people after creating the fake account.
Here’s what you need to know:
The Instagram Scammer Makes a Fake Profile Using Someone From Bachelor Nation That Is Unverified on the Platform
Reality Steve reports that the real Clayton Echard’s Instagram account is just his first and last name together without a space in between. However, the imposter’s account added an underscore between the first and last name. However, because both of the accounts weren’t verified, it was easy for fans to think that the fake profile was legit.
The imposter recreated Clayton’s account by uploading all of his same posts — in order — and copying his bio.
“He starts out on IG, he lures them with his fake snapchat account, they start talking to him there thinking at first he’s the real person, then once he starts getting creepy, they’ve either emailed me at that point asking if it’s legit,” Reality Steve wrote on his blog.
He added that other members of Bachelor Nation, including Nick Viall and Greg Grippo, have also been impersonated.
Clayton currently has 24,000 followers — a big jump from his numbers before people knew that he was going to be the next “Bachelor” — and will likely have a blue checkmark (verified) next to his name in the coming weeks.
Bachelor Nation Has Also Been Subjected to Hackers in the Past
Bachelor Nation has also had to deal with hackers, which has been even more invasive. For example, former “Bachelor in Paradise” star Amanda Stanton had her personal photos hacked in 2019, according to Entertainment Tonight.
“[The hacker] sent [my personal photos] to my friend’s boyfriend, he sent them to people who I work with, he sent them to producers at ABC. And it was just kind of out of my control and there was nothing I could do about it, so I figured that I might as well just address it,” Stanton said on her Instagram Stories at the time, according to ET.
Bri Springs from Matt James’ season of “The Bachelor” had her Instagram account hacked in early 2021, according to Screenrant. The outlet reported that Bri actually made fun of the hackers on her Instagram Stories after securing her account.
And, back in 2020, Hannah Godwin’s Instagram account got hacked, according to this Reddit thread.