Martin Lewis has warned that “hideous criminals” are using his likeness in fake adverts for bogus investment schemes after a victim lost hundreds of pounds.
A man called Alan contacted Mr Lewis over X to say: “I saw an advert you did for Elon Musk AI investment and it was a scam. I invested £250 two different occupation [sic] and later found it was a scam. I hope you can let the public know, thank you very kindly.”
Mr Lewis urged people to be cautious as scammers are active, saying: “I am so desperately sorry to hear that. These are hideous criminals.
“And they’re at it again right now. It breaks my heart to hear of people losing money because these b******* have perverted my life’s work to steal from people.”
Mr Lewis runs the popular MoneySavingExpert website and has his own TV show and podcast, and scammers often use fake celebrity endorsements to make their ploys appear legitimate.
Scammers previously used AI to create a video mimicking Mr Lewis’ appearance and even his voice to endorse a fake Elon Musk investment scheme.
Mr Lewis has repeatedly warned people that he would never endorse an investment scheme or feature in an advert for financial services.
His profile picture on X even features the words written across his forehead: “I don’t do ads.” He also tells people when he will be having a break from social media – so if you see a purported message or endorsement from him during this time, it will be fake.
He also previously sued Facebook after 1,000 scam adverts using his name appeared on the website in just a year.
Cruel scammers are also using AI to imitate a person’s voice which they then use to call a relative, to get them to send over money.
Rob Cottrill, technology director at ANS, told Express.co.uk previously: “Consider AI using your child’s voice, expressing distress, claiming they’re in trouble or kidnapped, and urgently requesting money.
“It’s a situation that could deceive anyone. Therefore, it’s essential to remain vigilant as these scams are continually evolving, making anyone a potential target.”
Nick France, chief technology officer at Sectigo, said criminals can use AI technology to mimic a person’s voice for several different attacks.
He said: “Recently an experiment proved that AI can produce convincing deep fakes capable of bypassing voice recognition for online banking.
“People think phone scams, that successfully manipulate someone’s voice is mission impossible, but the reality is that AI deepfake voice technology is more democratised than we like to believe, it doesn’t take an MIT graduate to pull this off.”
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