EastEnders has confirmed that Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) has become the target of a financial scam in the run-up to Christmas.
In recent episodes Jean has been seen taking investment advice from a company who have steered her into putting her money from a long-forgotten pension fund into a supposedly lucrative scheme.
In Thursday's edition of the soap, however, Jean learned the truth that she had in fact been targeted by criminals who have now stolen all of the money that she invested.
"Jean's story will highlight the extreme strategies scammers use to gain a victim's trust to convince them into parting with serious sums of money," said EastEnders executive producer Chris Clenshaw.
"Not only will Jean have to cope with losing her pension money, but she'll also have to deal with a range of difficult emotions as she tells her family and friends what's happened."
Independent scams expert Nick Stapleton, who has worked with the BBC on the story, added: "I am incredibly happy to see the issue of scams and fraud getting the attention it deserves with a storyline on one of the nation's favourite soaps.
"Scams are one of the greatest challenges of modern times; not just the money we lose to scammers as a country, but the emotional and psychological impact for those who go through one. It's high time we brought that fully into the mainstream and EastEnders is leading the way."
EastEnders continues Mondays to Thursdays from 6am on iPlayer and at 7.30pm on BBC One.
Neil Wilkes
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