Des lost £76,000 after falling victim to fraudulent Facebook advert
'It's quite difficult for me to have to sit in the same room as you,' says money-saving expert Martin Lewis, as Des Healey, a kitchen fitter from Brighton, enters the BBC Radio studio 5 Live.
Like many other people, Des had been the victim of a fraudulent Facebook ad that used a deepfake of Martin with tech billionaire Elon Musk promoting a non-existent Bitcoin investment program.
Facebook owner Meta recently announced it would introduce facial recognition technology to try to crack down on scammers fraudulently using celebrities in ads.
Martin says he has the “strange distinction” of being the most scammed face in Britain.
“I've spent my whole career trying to help consumers, and these criminals and thieves and organized crime people have perverted my reputation,” he said on his BBC Sounds podcast.
Martin tells Des how difficult it is to meet someone who was duped by the scam using his image, knowing he “trusted what I was doing” to invest money – which ultimately cost Des £76,000.
Martin Lewis speaking in July 2023 when the deepfake scam was first revealed
It was August 2023 and Des was on Facebook when he spotted the fake advert for the investment scheme, falsely claimed to be presented by the duo.
Artificial intelligence (AI) had been used to manipulate Martin's real voice to make it appear as if he was doing a television interview from his home, endorsing an investment plan by Musk.
“I've seen you many times on TV stating that you never put your name on these things,” Des said to Martin, “so why did that day sell it to me, I don't know…I really don't know.” t”.
“Falling for scams doesn’t make you a jerk”
As a self-employed craftsman, Des says he saw the advert as an opportunity to “earn a few extra bobs” before Christmas in a short space of time while his own business was not busy.
After responding to the advert with his contact details, Des was called within 10 minutes and put in touch with a man who claimed to have over 20 years' experience as a financial advisor.
Calling himself Carl, he opened an account for Des at Revolut, an e-money company with nine million customers in the UK, and invested £1,000.
Carl told Des that “profitable months” were coming and that they would “earn a lot more” if they invested his money “as soon as possible”.
Shortly after the initial investment, it emerged that Des had gotten the money back into his Revolut account, although it's unclear whether the screen Des was seeing was actually that account or a fake page, controlled by the scammer.
Trusting Carl, Des then transferred £5,000 to the Revolut account – his entire savings.
“To get the £5,000 back you had to put in £10,000,” explains Des, “I wasn’t allowed to take anything out until he told me I could.”
The £5,000 transferred was then withdrawn from the Revolut account by the scammer under the pretext that it was invested.
Healeys
Des took out other loans to cover the money he thought was being invested
Des ultimately had to take out four loans from four separate providers totaling £70,000 in order to continue investing.
That's when her son listened in on one of the phone calls with Carl and expressed concerns after hearing music in the background.
He remembers his son asking him, “Which bank or call center would play a rap song?” » before warning his father to go to the police after suspecting that “it's not right”.
Reflecting on how he was scammed, Des says it was like “a spell had been cast on me”.
Martin says Des is “brave and admirable” for speaking out and telling his story as “a wake-up call” to others.
He adds that scammers are “psychologically adept at manipulating us, they use enormous online and intellectual resources to steal our money… falling for scams doesn't make you a jerk – it makes you a victim , but that doesn't make you a mug.”
Offering his advice to avoid being scammed, Martin recommends being wary of “urgency.”
“The more urgent it is and the less you can talk about it, the more secretive it is, the more likely it is to be a scam,” he says.
Another tip is that if you receive a cold call from someone at your bank or a company you do business with, asking for information, “politely hang up” and call them back.
“I would prefer to call back on another phone, just in case they keep the number activated,” advises Martin.
If you have been affected by the issues raised in this story, help and support is available via BBC Action Line.
He says “if you don't have another phone, you can wait 10 or 15 minutes or call a family member first.”
He adds that people should “be very careful” when asked to click on a link “or if you receive a text message asking you to reply 'stop.'
“You need to be aware that by texting stop, you're letting them know you're a real cell phone number and you risk getting even more scams on your back,” he says.
Since reporting the scam to police, two of the banks Des had withdrawn money from have canceled his loans with them.
He still owes £20,000 plus interest of almost £6,000 to two separate companies and is speaking to the Financial Ombudsman about his options.
Having finally met Martin and told his scam story, Des says he is grateful to have had the opportunity because “Martin is a good guy”.
“(He) said after the podcast that I probably helped a lot of people…I was very happy that I (spoke).”
A Revolut spokesperson said it was sorry to hear about cases where “customers are being targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals”.
The statement added: “Revolut works hard and invests heavily to protect our customers as best we can with our fraud prevention technologies, analyzing more than half a billion transactions per month.”
