Martin Lewis was left feeling 'slightly sick' as he made an appearance on ITV This Morning when a viewer spoke of losing over £12,000 to a cryptocurrency scam. The Money Saving Expert founder spoke to Holly Willoughby and Philip Schofield via video link on Tuesday's edition of the daytime show (February 28) before the return of his ITV show tonight.
Phone lines were open for viewers to speak to Martin about their queries, and before long the 50-year-old was issuing a warning of a scan to viewers. During the 'Ask Martin Lewis' segment, a man, named John, told Martin how he lad lost more than £12,000 to a fake cryptocurrency advert, Manchester Evening News reports.
Martin spoke of scammers now being more "sophisticated" and "physiologically devious", which enables them to catch people out.
"Every time I hear a story like that, it makes me feel slightly sick If I'm honest with you," Martin confessed before trying to offer some guidance to John, who said he had already contacted his bank, who are investigating the issue.
"It is very difficult, there are push payment regulations now and scam regulations that means maybe the bank will be able to recoup the money from the scammers bank. I would certainly in the first instance speak to Citizens Advice Consumer Helpline.
"When I sued Facebook about this, I settled for a £3 million donation to set up Citizens Advice scam action and you can get 1-1 scam help from the consumer helpline. Clearly, the information given to me isn't enough for me to help you and to be honest, there's not much I can do."
Including the show's hosts in his warning, Martin continued: "It is very difficult to fix after it's happened. So all those, especially This Morning fans, because Phil and Holly they use you as well, you're often in the picture with me or by yourself. We don't talk about this, this isn't about Bitcoin, none of this has anything to do with crypto-currency, this is just what people do."
He continued: "They think that we can use what people trust- our faces- and what do people think will get them rich quickly- bitcoin- because people have heard of bitcoin. They put the two together as a dog whistle to get people to think that these are proper get rich schemes, then they steal your money."
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"They are criminals, they are thieves, there is no investment and it may sound plausible and they will always start off with 'give us £250'." Martin then added: "They are sophisticated, clever and physiologically devious. You have to protect yourself, we have to keep getting the word out."
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