This Morning’s Martin Lewis issues furious warning to fans and urges police to take action over online scam
THIS Morning star Martin Lewis has issued an urgent warning to police following an investigation into online scams.
The MoneySavingExpert founder has spoken out after the BBC appeared to uncover those responsible for a slew of scam adverts featuring his face.
Martin is furious by the ads, as so many people fell victim to them because they thought he was associated, and previously sued Facebook for defamation over it.
The BBC now claim to have tracked down the scammers for the BBC World News documentary The Billion Dollar Scam.
Investigators claim that a single global network is responsible for the adverts, which have scammed savers out of “£1,000s, if not £100,000s”.
Martin has now spoken out in the wake of the findings – and warned that “proper prosecutions” must come out of the investigation.
Speaking on his own MoneySavingExpert website, the Good Morning Britain host said: “It’s both heartening and worrying that the scammers seem to have been identified. I don’t know whether they’re the only group doing this, but certainly if the BBC is right, then a huge volume of scams have come from this.
“Unfortunately the policing of online scams and fraud in the UK is virtually non-existent. It’s a licence for criminals to make money. There are only negligible police resources put into stopping fraud — very few scammers are ever spoken to let alone arrested — and they get away with it with impunity. That’s why I’ve always focused on trying to close down their routes to the general public.
“So while exposing the scammers is a valid, strong piece of journalism — and plaudits to the BBC for putting the resources in — we need real, mainstream police and legal resources put in place to ensure proper prosecutions. Only when the scammers have a feasible risk of losing their ill-gotten gains and criminal punishment will we start to see a reduction.”
In 2019, Facebook vowed to investigate and block scam adverts following legal action taken by money guru Martin.
The consumer expert dropped his lawsuit against the social media company and convinced Facebook to invest £3million in his new project tackling online fraud in a settlement instead.
Facebook users can now report an advert by clicking the three dots in the top right hand corner of a post.
The case is then investigated by a team of specialists that take down violating posts.
Scam ads often use photos of celebrities as fake endorsements to dupe people into buying false products and services, such as cryptocurrency and diet pills.
Citizens Advice anti-scam project, Scams Action, now also give one-to-one support to those who are worried they have been victims of fraud.