Meet The Woman Who Lost £40,000 To A ‘Martin Lewis' Scam | This Morning

before that though experts are warning of a rising threat of cryptocurrency fraud after the scams Rose by 23% last year now then today we're joined by somebody who knows just how dangerous they are Lisa whose identity we're protecting invested in a scheme on social media which she believed was backed by our very own Martin Lewis but things quickly spiraled and before she knew it scammers had stolen £40,000 from her account it's just terrifying scared and too embarrassed to tell her friends and family Le reached out to trading standards where she was helped by scams officer Janet Quinn Janet's here alongside Lisa today to share this shocking story good morning to both of you morning hello uh Lisa these scams have terrified me and my colleagues next door at Good Morning Britain for a very long time because for a long time our pictures have been used alongside this sort of advert about us doing a mocked up interview on the set it all looks really really sophisticated looks like it actually happened and people will click on the link and then you're in and you're away it's EX exactly what happened with you what happened to me what was it at least initially that Drew you into the idea of of of what it was offering um well I'd look I'd been looking at Bitcoin I thought this looks interesting and then saw Martin Lewis advert um I follow the money saving expert and I was just kind of assumed if he thought it was a good idea then let's click the link and see what happens now you follow Martin and Martin's always been very very very sort of clear and adamant that he doesn't advertise these things or these things as scams and amongst all of that you know now but of course in that moment you didn't know so talk us through what happened once you clicked on and what that process became so I received an email quite quickly from someone saying they were from a Trading Company um could we arrange time to talk so I thought yeah because I'd initiated it I thought well I need to talk to him I've initiated it you know so I spoke to him it's very very charming and he said right well what we need to do is we need to open up a um a banking app and we need to do this we need to do that um so and an app to access my phone which I refused initially because you've heard that you shouldn't hand over control these things yeah but he spoke to me every single day um which I now know he was grooming me and he persuaded me because I didn't have the time to be to trading every day he persuaded me to download this app and which then gave him access to my phone and essentially this was a man called Carlos who started off being incredibly Charming yes and kind of winning you in and luring you in with this charm and then he almost turned a little bit as well and almost became a bully became much more aggressive what happened uh so he set up a um an account and applied for possibly 11 loans using false details about me because you'd given him access to this app and that meant that he could try and do that yeah so he'd set up um a profile or something the credit reference okay yeah yeah yeah yeah and he' applied for 11 loan using my details tens of thousand well so I thought it was 70,000 it was actually 55,000 £55,000 um and I also was then receiving letters through the post saying thank you for your application but on this occasion we're not going to give you a loan that was another 40,000 50,000 maybe you know so fortunately they said no so you so it was it was initially wasn't it right at the start it was £200 that you put into this SCH coming in well I I said I I don't want to do this you know I I've I I'm not I don't AF I can't afford loans I can't and he's like what are you worrying about you know you've got all this money in your account balance just from the £200 you investors you know think what you can do with all this money and I'm like I don't want to take out any loans but I presumed that I'd have to sign a credit agreement or something but nothing the money just appeared in my account and because it was in my account he told me that they'd all be paid off I had 100,000 by this point in my trading account they'd all be paid off just transfer the money to the banking app and it would sit there if we needed it and and I did you did did that and that was when they got of it he he kind of helped do it of course through the app and what did your husband have to say about all this my husband didn't know didn't know anything about it he actually thought you were even having an affair because there was so much going on because I was hiding my phone calls with him yeah Lisa why did you not want to share it with your husband because initially investing the £200 that was okay we'd actually said well what's the worst that can happen we'll lose £200 when it came what 5 5,200 it then became a problem and I didn't want him to see that I had all this money in my account balance and I didn't want him to keep quizzing me so I just played it down a bit so whenever I was talking to this guy as soon as my husband came in I was like got to go I'd be like cutting the phone off so it sounds more suspicious so you can understand what his concern was so what happened how did you eventually come clean and start sharing the situation so once um the trading account was gone all my money was gone and I was then trying to pay all these loans um I was actually using savings to make the payments because I didn't know what I was dealing with until the payments came out of my account yeah um it just it was eating me away and I ended up I just said to my husband one day we need to talk and he's like what have you done and I told him and he has been so supportive bless him and when did you then get Janet involved so when it when it all the trading crashed and everything else um I contacted um citizens advice Bureau who put me in touch with trading standards and I have to say without them I don't know what would have happened oh Janet it's this is the sort of thing I don't know if anyone's watched that we have this conversation The Beekeeper which is a brand new film with Jason ST which exactly this it's this story we just needed Jason St to go and find but it is it's the scammer that gets control of somebody's money and then cleans out their accounts Bitcoin has just shot up again so you know that that's going to engage people's interest but all intrigued by cryptocurrency how much of this are you seeing Janet unfortunately a lot Lisa's story is such an awful story every time I hear it it just makes me so sad because it's such a personal story this has ruined her life but we're seeing it a lot every month when we get complaints there's always cryptocurrency up there um because it's the it's the big thing everyone wants to make some money so so what would be your advice how can people protect themselves obviously yes and times are very tricky at the moment so everybody does want to make the most of their money but we need certain things in place to protect ourselves so what would be your advice absolutely Ely I mean I could talk all day about this but the I think the key things are um always do your own research so be really wary of you're approached by somebody else by a cold call on the phone um a text message with a link to click on a popup on your computer anything on social media which is what Lisa saw just be really really wary if you want to invest do your own research really think about it I think always as well be prepared to lose what you're investing so keep it small amounts well the £200 was enough you like that was weth taking that's what L Lea in but it it just gets out of hand and out of control so quickly and it's so easily done as well that's the thing more than anything and I think then you get involved and then you feel silly and it just continues and it spirals out of control absolutely like anything then it's harder to get out of and the important message I want to get across here is that Lisa was groomed he phoned her every single day it's the same you do so much on this show about scams which is great because it's really important to get the message out there and Lisa is so brave today in sharing her story to try and help others because that's what they do they're grooming you just like romance scammers we've got we talking of messages I know that Martin's given us a message to share as well because this is such an important thing for him he's so well trusted and he hates the idea of people like Lisa being duped by these things this is what Martin says I don't do advert I don't do adverts I don't do adverts any advert you see with me in is a scam I get five messages a day from people asking me are they real if someone is advertising something with me in it it is a lie I don't do adverts if someone is talking about an investment and saying I said it's a good investment they are thieves criminals trying to steal your money do not go near them here's our version of Jason's dat isn't it doesn't have as many weapons like actual explosive ones I know at least you're smiling while you're seeing Martin say that cuz it all Rings true now of course doesn't it what would you say to anybody at home who's looked at some of these things is intrigued because I think your daughter said all mom we're thinking about investing in some cryptocurrency uh if it looks too good to be true it probably is well look and thank you so much for as Janet says being brave enough to come and share your story unquestionably it's going to help some people but it's really really important that we remember that message particularly from Martin if you see anything mocked up with us here in this studio suggesting that we are supporting any sort of cryptocurrency getrich SK quick trading scheme it is a scam it's we can't even say it alote it I'm just so worried it's just so awful I'm so sorry you've been through it um but thank you very much for coming in and sharing thanks jenet thanks Janet

Channel: This Morning

Views: 96,481

Keywords: This Morning, This Morning ITV, Holly Willoughby, Phillip Schofield, Alison Hammond, Dermot O'Leary, ITV, STV, Josie Gibson, Craig Doyle, Rylan, This Morning Funny Moments, This Morning Funniest Moments, This Morning Interviews, Alison Hammond Interviews

Id: k873t7hD3lE

Length: 10min 59sec (659 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 18 2024