S Poddar
Martin Lewis has raised a cautionary flag regarding prevalent scams involving celebrities, highlighting incidents where individuals lost significant sums of money. One such case involved a scam falsely featuring Martin Lewis himself, resulting in a loss of £500,000 for one victim. Other victims fell prey to scams using the names of celebrities like Taylor Swift.
According to analysis by MoneySavingExpert.com based on data from Action Fraud covering 2022 and 2023, various high-profile personalities from entertainment, business, politics, and royalty have been frequently exploited in these scams. The list includes names such as Elon Musk, Adele, Jeremy Clarkson, and Rishi Sunak, among others.
The data underscores the widespread misuse of celebrity identities in online scams, a phenomenon that often goes unreported. MoneySavingExpert.com highlighted that the reported cases represent only a fraction of the actual incidents, as many victims do not report these scams to authorities.
Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert.com, was notably the most commonly misused public figure in the scams reported to Action Fraud during the period analyzed.
