Mediacorp actress Xiang Yun has decided to restart her social media accounts in light of the recent misuse of her photos.

On Jul. 17, the veteran artiste took to Instagram and Facebook to air her grievances.

Fresh start

In a series of screenshots of her text, Xiang Yun revealed that her photos had been "manipulated and exploited for advertising purposes by unknown businesses and brands".

She voiced concern for the "overwhelming" number of people who fell victim to the unethical marketing schemes.

"It is disheartening to see that people have taken advantage of my public figure status, but what's worse is that they have used this privilege to deceive innocent individuals for personal gain."

The actress then went on to assure her followers of her "heightened vigilance" moving forward, stating that she's committed to exercising greater caution in the content she shares and brands she associates with, as well as implementing tighter privacy settings across her socials and working with her team to vet future collaborations.

A persistent issue

The restarting of her social media accounts seems to be a last resort for the artiste, who has been plagued by fake ads for quite some time.

On Feb. 18, 2022, Xiang Yun exposed the falsity of some "sponsored" advertorials on Facebook.

One such advertisement used Xiang Yun's photo to sell traditional Chinese medicine stickers for weight loss, claiming to have Chen Liping's stamp of approval, reported Shin Min Daily News.

Photos of her husband, former Mediacorp actor Edmund Chen, were also used in some of the advertisements.

The actress said that she had previously posted a warning on Instagram, but when the scams didn't cease, she decided that it was time to take more drastic measures.

A quick search of these Facebook pages (Hkaa.club.Hk and Rainco.club) show that the false advertisements have been taken down, although the pages still had other posts that marketed their products.

Top images via Xiang Yun's Instagram and Facebook