Holly Willoughby pleaded with viewers 'don't do it' as she revealed how she was almost the victim of a text scam. The presenter shared her story while appearing on This Morning alongside Phillip Schofield on Monday (October 10).
The pair were joined on programme by Scam Buster Alexis Conran who was offering tips and advice to viewers amid a rise in fraudsters using the cost of living crisis to target victims. And despite often warning viewers about and interviewing victims of such scams, Holly, 41, revealed how she almost became a scam victim herself.
During the segment on scam text messages, the mum-of-three said: "The amount of times we talk about it and I did it the other day. It was a text about a delivery that needed re-delivering. And I thought, ''Oh yeah, I probably do need to pay the re-delivery'.'"
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She went on: "It was only when I clicked and saw you had to enter your bank details and I thought, 'Oh my god, don't do it' and deleted it. Even though we talk about it all the time." Her co-host Phillip said she had gone a long way into filling in the information before realising her error. "I did, I did, I did," Holly admitted.
When asked what made her realise it was a scam, Holly replied: "The moment I saw bank details I though, 'Oh ok, I get this.'" Thankfully, Holly realised before it was it too late.
Holly's own admission comes just months after Strictly Come Dancing star Helen Skelton revealed how she lost her £70k life savings in internet banking scam. The Countryfile presenter admitted she felt 'really stupid' after falling for the scam in 2019, after answering a few questions during a 'dodgy' phone call from what she believed was her bank.
She explained: 'I mean, come on – even as adults it is so easy to fall victim to a fraudster. I've done it – it has happened to me. It makes you feel really stupid. But it has happened to so many people who aren't stupid." But Helen shared how falling victim to a scammer is 'easily done' as everyone spends a lot of their lives online.
The 39-year-old shared at the time: "I personally know the pain of being defrauded, so it is incredibly important to me that my children are equipped to spot a scam, even in the seemingly harmless environment of a video game." Meanwhile, former Coronation Street star Adam Rickitt also became emotional after he was scammed out of £50,000.
He spoke about the horrifying ordeal in an Instagram video posted early last month. He took to the social media platform to share what happened to him in a bid to make sure it doesn't happen to anyone else. Adam, who originally played Nick Tilsley in Corrie from 1997 to 1999 before launching a pop career, said he felt 'stupid' for getting tricked and claimed that the convincing scammers 'knew everything about him'.
He explained how he got "completely scammed" by fraudsters impersonating his bank. He said he "was 100% sure it was the bank" and "that they were helping me." He went on: "And that I wasn't even transferring funds or giving any details away. Alas the former wasn't true...they managed to duplicate everything I thought to be safe...they knew EVERYTHING about me and my history with the bank."
He said that they removed £49,500 from his business account but said this wasn't their intention, and that the scammers had intended to wipe him of every penny. Luckily, Adam did get his money back, however, this isn't the case for everyone. Adam's presenter wife Katy Rickitt said during their appearance on GMB: “If this happens to you, and this is what we’ve tortured ourselves with over the last week, it’s actually a real gamble whether you will get your money back. It's up to [the banks] whether they deem you to be ‘grossly negligent’. According to Which?, only 42 percent get their money back through the bank’s scheme."
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