Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield have been revealed to be the 'most exploited' stars by online scammers, with their images being used to procure money from unsuspecting customers.
For the second year NatWest has released the annual NatWest Celeb Scam Super League table featuring the highest value fraud cases where celebrities have been unknowingly exploited by criminals and members of the public left with losses totalling hundreds of thousands of pounds.
This Morning presenters Holly and Phillip top the table of celebs whose alleged endorsement of schemes have led to the biggest frauds, with each of them on £370,000, with one scam using Holly's image, resulting in a £270,000 fraud alone. Martin Lewis, who frequently issues warnings over cyber scams, was next on the list after his image was used to lure a customer into losing £317,000 to a criminal, when he saw a fake advertisement featuring the money saving expert promoting ‘Bitcoin Evolution.'
READ MORE : Martin Lewis concerned about 'financial timebomb' as bills soar
Instagram is the main platform criminals are using to publish their fake adverts with Facebook and Snapchat following closely, with other stars exploited by fraudsters including Piers Morgan, Gordon Ramsay and Dragon's Den entrepreneur Deborah Meaden.
Stuart Skinner, NatWest Scam Expert said: ‘Fraud is surging in the UK, the most powerful tool we all have in defeating these criminals is knowledge. In knowing that criminals are exploiting the images of celebrities we can all take steps to protect ourselves.
"If you have seen an ad promising large profit, high rates of return and/or offering to help you invest in cryptocurrency, this is a likely to be a scam – if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.’
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