Love Island star issues warning over Christmas scams

A Love Island star has revealed how she felt "really stupid" and unable to tell anybody after she was scammed.

Amy Hart, from Worthing, West Sussex, said she was scammed out of £5,000 by "career criminals" pretending to be her bank's action fraud line in May 2022.

The 33-year-old is leading a campaign warning people to be wary of scams in the lead up to Christmas.

Research by Microsoft has revealed that nearly 50% of people in England have been targeted by scams this year.

Ms Hart, who featured on the 2019 series of the dating reality TV show, said: "It was everything I worked for, I was really worried."

The mother-of-one added: "They make you panic; they make you think time is of the essence. Afterwards I was like, 'I can't believe I've just done that'.

"I see myself as a very technically literate person. We may think scamming is for people who don't understand [technology] or older people. But anyone can be scammed.

"A big problem is the shame around it; these people are career criminals. They're so good at it. We shouldn't feel ashamed or stupid."

Ms Hart said she received a call and did not recognise the number, but when she searched it online, it came up as her bank's fraud department.

The scammers then showed her three transactions; two she did make and one she did not, she said.

As she recognised two of the payments, she felt comfortable enough to send the caller a code which gave access to her account, Ms Hart said.

She reported it to her bank but not to the police or National Cyber Security Centre. She eventually got her £5,000 back from her bank.

Ms Hart, who is pregnant with her second child, said she was worried about being scammed again and has warned others to be aware, especially when they are distracted and scammers could slip through the cracks.

"Christmas is coming up. You might get texts saying you've received a package. It's a really hot time for scams," she added.

"Life is busy. I'm a mum and we have so much going on over Christmas. Stop and critically think about what they're asking you to do. I didn't do that."

The study, which was a sample of 5,000 people across the UK, revealed that the most common scams people have been targeted by were delivery scams, which affected 34% of people.

Banking impersonation was second with 22%, followed by fake prize wins with 20% of people having been targeted, government style messages with 19% and job offer scams with 17%.

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