Earlier today on This Morning Martin Lewis spoke of an 'epidemic of scams in the UK at the moment, in a way we really have not seen before'.
When a caller shares their experience of a recent Amazon scam Martin seems far from surprised. He describes the level of scams as ‘totally unparralled’, meaning we need to be more alert than ever.
Related: Martin Lewis reveals his top tips for getting a mortgage as a first-time buyer
He says unfortunately Action Fraud, the police arm that are dealing with it, are too swamped. He warns, 'we have to protect ourselves’.
Martin talks money scams on This Morning
‘There’s a scam call from Amazon going around – which is obviously not from Amazon,’ Phillip rightly points out as he goes on to read, ‘It’s an automated call saying you’ll be charged £39.99 a month and then says please press 1 to cancel.'
'When you do you get to talk to someone who wants to know what device you use for your Amazon account.’
At this point Martin looks pensive, as Phillip continues to read ‘they can somehow gain access to your bank account and clean it out if you provide this information’. Which, of course, we should not do.
Scary stuff, we think you’ll agree. So how can be more vigilant?
‘Unfortunately we are not protected as a society,’ Martin says, ‘we need to work together as a society to protect ourselves. My programme is on ITV 8 o’clock tonight, I would honestly urge everybody to watch this. Scams are not about stupid people doing stupid things. Scams are about clever people.'
He urges us all to watch to see just how smart these new scams are. He thanks Beverley for sharing her Amazon scam warning.
Going on to say, ‘let’s be careful, cautious and help each other. If you’re not sure it’s a scam, talk to a trusted friend and say ‘does this make sense?'. He pointedly says, ‘HMRC will never email you about tax refunds'.
He urges us to seek advice from the Citizens Advice Scam Action, which Martin helped fund with £3 million from a lawsuit against Facebook.
He ends by saying 'we need to work together to stop scams’.
Related: Can’t get a mortgage? Martin Lewis says these are the credit files you need to ask for
Tune in tonight 8p.m ITV, to hear more from Martin. About how to stay finically safe in the current scam-heavy climate.
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