{"id":38855,"date":"2025-09-02T15:14:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/38855\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T15:14:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T15:14:08","slug":"martin-lewis-warns-over-disgraceful-adverts-by-criminals-misusing-his-name-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/38855\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Lewis warns over \u2018disgraceful\u2019 adverts by criminals misusing his name \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin Lewis has warned about \u201cdisgraceful\u201d online adverts posted by criminals, after hearing how a woman\u2019s husband lost thousands of pounds after seeing a fake promotion claiming to involve him.<\/p>\n

Appearing on ITV\u2019s This Morning, Gill Casey told how her late husband Tim, a \u201cclever guy\u201d, had seen a clip purporting to involve Mr Lewis and someone else, which gave the false appearance that it had been shown on the This Morning programme.<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cHe was recommending crypto\u2026 and you contacted a number, a London number, and they got back to you\u2026 and it started from then\u2026 the brainwashing starts from then.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Casey said a man had contacted her husband and persuaded him to initially put a small amount in adding \u201conce they get their hooks in, they just keep on and on and on, and this guy would phone perhaps three times a week. By this time, Tim was in his early 80s and he had the time, he was at home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"WWE<\/a>\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

She added: \u201cHe would phone for perhaps three times a week and he would talk for two hours and it was just brainwashing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Casey told how around \u00a390,000 had been put in by the time a request to withdraw the money was made and the scammers then claimed a tax bill needed to be paid.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey wanted \u00a330,000. We hadn\u2019t got this \u00a330,000,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Her husband borrowed some money and paid the supposed tax bill, but was then told that commission needed to be paid, she added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said: \u2018Look\u2026 this is crazy. This money is lost.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd his mouth dropped open and he looked at me and he said: \u2018Has it really gone, this money?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said: \u2018Yes, it\u2019s gone, it\u2019s gone, I\u2019m sure it\u2019s gone.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking about the impact of the crime on her husband, Ms Casey said it \u201cknocked him for six, it stole his dignity, it stole his self-confidence, his self-esteem, he went a lot quieter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Around 18 months ago, he did not seem that well, she said, and he was diagnosed with cancer.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave him four months to live\u2026 and four months it was,\u201d Ms Casey said.<\/p>\n

Mr Lewis, who also appeared on This Morning, told the ITV show: \u201cIt\u2019s just devastating. Gill has explained it perfectly and she\u2019s given what is frankly a textbook example of how these criminals, these vicious criminals, steal people\u2019s money, via what is brainwashing. It is absolutely typical.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI will do my usual caveat. I do not do adverts, I do not recommend \u2018make money\u2019 products, I do not recommend crypto trading or investment schemes \u2013 if you see those adverts on social media, they are criminals.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the way they draw you in, with \u00a3250 as a usual amount and yes you see that ticker, you think you\u2019re making more money, they persuade you to put more money in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The MoneySavingExpert.com founder added: \u201cThink about it, let\u2019s be blunt here: what legitimate company has the resources to have someone spend two hours with you three times a week? They don\u2019t, they\u2019re scammers, and they will persuade you to put more and more and more money in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Lewis continued: \u201cIf it seems too good to be true, do not do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt is absolutely devastating. My career has been about trying to protect consumers, protect their pockets and fight for financial justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd for these people to use my name to rip vulnerable people off and non-vulnerable people off is absolutely disgraceful. And they know what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have even used, and use, deepfake AIs of me talking about them and they\u2019ve used those particular shots, they may even use this one as a deepfake AI to try and do a new advert about scams.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin Lewis has warned about \u201cdisgraceful\u201d online adverts posted by criminals, after hearing how a woman\u2019s husband lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[1578,18,117,12668,19,17,29863,825,12314,128,1294],"class_list":{"0":"post-38855","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-city","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-fraud","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-martin-lewis","15":"tag-money","16":"tag-scams","17":"tag-tv","18":"tag-uk"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}