Poor Jean Slater (Gillian Wright) has lost all of her money in EastEnders.
Recently, the beloved character unexpectedly came into some money after finding out she had a pension pot she knew nothing about.
She realised that a sudden windfall of £12,000 would change her life forever, though the supposed ‘advisors’ on the other end of the phone suggested that she should invest the cash to maximise profit.
That would help pay for her dream of retiring to Greece one day.
She was spurred along by new pal Kojo Asare (Dayo Koleosho), who agreed that the opportunity to become a partner in an Australian tea farm was too good to refuse.
Sadly, the company Jean was communicating with was not legit. She came to the realisation she had fallen victim to a scammer, and had lost everything.
Stacey Slater (Lacey Turner) was feeling surprised when tonight’s episode began, as she found her mum in a good mood.
Jean explained that she had made contact with a solicitor, who said she will help get all of her money back.
Stacey felt hopeful, but also quite suspicious. With that, she made her way to the café to speak with Jack Branning (Scott Maslen), searching for answers.
Stacey showed Jack some information about the solicitor Jean was speaking to, and he immediately confirmed the crime reference number listed was not real.
Back at home, when Stace asked Jean if she had given the solicitor her password to her bank account, the penny started to drop that she had been scammed again.
That evening, Harvey Monroe (Ross Boatman) found Jean crying in the kitchen, utterly horrified she had lost so much in such a short space of time.
Discussing this storyline, Executive Producer Chris Clenshaw said: ‘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. 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.’
‘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’ added Nick Stapleton of Scam Safe.
‘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.’
