Martin Lewis has sent a message to the public to be vigilant over fake adverts using his identity to scam people. The Money Saving Expert founder says he does not take part in adverts and said “we live in a wild west when it comes to scam ads at the moment”.
The consumer journalist shared the warning after hearing a man had lost £140,000 through a fake crypto advert which appeared to have Mr Lewis promoting it. Appearing on ITV’s This Morning, Mr Lewis was asked by a viewer for help following the financial loss. This Morning host Ben Shephard explained the situation on behalf of the viewer, saying: “My brother has been scammed. He thought Martin Lewis was dealing crypto, there’s all these AI adverts online. Over the few months he has lost £140,000 including money I have lent him and various bank loans.
“We’re all devastated he has fallen for this. He is very depressed as you can imagine, as his wife has a very low paid job. Where do we start getting him out of debt?”
Mr Lewis criticised the handling of scam adverts, telling Mr Shephard and his co-host Cat Deeley “it is ridiculous” that the current and previous governments haven failed to get a grip on the issue.
He said there are daily scams using his identity and others such as entreprenuer Steven Bartlett on social media.
Mr Lewis said: “See any advert with me in, I do not talk about crypto. I do not do advertising, I do not do investing. Please don’t touch it.
“After years of campaigning we got the last government to put in the Online Safety Act that scam ads were included because for some reason they weren’t going to do that first.”
He warned viewers nobody is protecting them when it comes to scam adverts and “you have to look after you”. Anything advertising crypto, the ITV star urged people to avoid them.
Mr Lewis is also using his own social media to warn people of the scams.
His profile picture on Instagram features a photo of him with the message: “I don’t do ads.”