Upset Martin Lewis warns Good Morning Britain viewers after elderly relative falls victim to heartless scammers
MARTIN Lewis has revealed his upset after a close elderly relative was targeted by scammers.
The Money Saving Expert warned Good Morning Britain viewers today to be vigilant against any unexpected cold calls from service providers so that they don’t suffer a similar fate.
Martin explained: “Scammers are very sophisticated. A close relative of mine was scammed yesterday. It was quite upsetting.
“They were called by Microsoft Security Essentials, which is not Microsoft Security Essentials, it’s scammers saying their computer had been defrauded and, in four hours on the phone thinking this person was helping them, gave all their details.
“The honest truth is there are many times you’ll be called up by people trying to help you with scams, that’s what the scammers do.”
While it only took Martin minutes to establish the call was fraudulent, he had a difficult time persuading his family member that was the case.
He told them “‘Forget my relationship to you. This is what I do for my job. This is a scam. You need to call all your banks, all your credit card providers, right now!'”
He continued: “Three of the banks, thankfully, had stopped it. One of the banks paid money out but is refunding it because they got in touch in time. We don’t know what’s safe on the computer, so that’s going to have to be reset.”
Martin made it clear that anyone can fall victim to scams, no matter what their societal status is.
“It’s so easy,” he said. “I know solicitors, I know university lecturers who have fallen for scams. You have to be sceptical. If anybody calls you out of the blue that you’re not expecting, be sceptical about it.”