This Morning viewers were thrilled on Monday as hosts Ruth Langsford and Rylan Clarke invited a scammer vigilante into the studio.
Refusing to show his face and using the pseudonym of Jim Browning, the IT expert joined the hosts in the ITV studio to dish out some very useful advice.
Starting the segment, Ruth said: "Now, last year 45 million of us were targeted by scam calls and texts. Consumers conned out of £2.3 billion in total."
Rylan added: "Fed up of falling victim to these scams, Jim Browning decided to turn the tables and hack back the cyber criminals trying to con him."
"Yeah he's dubbed the 'Virtual Vigilante'. He records himself catching these hackers and then he posts that on his youTube channel," Ruth then said.
After playing an example clip, Rylan and Ruth looked very impressed as Jim explained how he does it.
"I get the phone calls just like everybody else. I have a normal job, if you like in IT and I kept getting the calls and I thought,'if I can't do something about these scam phone calls, who can?'" Jim began.
"The way it works, I do the very thing that you're not supposed to do and I let scammers go onto my computer," Jim continued.
"They want to spot you logging into your online bank account. What has surprised me in the past is they stick to a script, and if you can take them off that script, then you do get a chance to turn the tables.
"I wouldn't encourage anyone else to do this, and I am obviously taking a little bit of a risk, but honestly I think the reward is well worth it. I've been able to help countless people at this point, and I've been able to step in to stop certain scams," he added.
Jim then gave his top tips to viewers watching at home and told people to "just be sceptical" of any incoming call.
"There's one question I'd recommend everybody asks and that's this: "How do I know this isn't a scam?' he explained.
"If you use that question, listen very carefully to the answer because a genuine company will be able to persuade you that... all scammers have your name and address typically on their screen, but a genuine company will be able to tell you more than that, customer ID, a recent transaction, that way you will be able to figure out if it's a scam or not."
Jim then said: "The key thing is to stop the scam or at least stop the phone call and hang up. Particularly if it's your bank, stop that phone call and with banks you can dial 159 and it will connect you directly with your bank, it's like a trusted number."
This Morning viewers were more than impressed with the segment and took to Twitter to comment.
One person wrote: "Fair play to “Jim” for playing these scammers at their own game! #ThisMorning @thismorning."
Another said: "This fella deserves a knighthood!!! #ThisMorning."
A third person tweeted: "What a legend this man is! Absolutely love it when folk like this get their own back on these arsehole scammers #ThisMorning."
And a fourth viewer added: "A man who scams scammers?! He’s already a legend in my eyes!! #ThisMorning."
This Morning airs weekdays at 10am on ITV and ITV Hub.
