Reality TV star Amy Hart has spoken out about how she was made a victim of a £5,000 scam.
The former Love Island star has admitted she felt "so alone" after she was defrauded out of the money by criminals pretending to be her bank. Amy also urged others who fall victim to similar scams not to feel embarrassed as it is very easy to be deceived by con artists who use sophisticated methods.
Talking about the terrifying experience which took place in 2022 she said: "My phone rang, I didn't recognise the number so I didn't answer it. I went onto Google to search for the number and it came back as my bank's fraud team. They phoned back again, so that time I answered it."
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Virgin Media O2)Amy continued to The Sun: "They knew lots of information about me and they said, 'There's been some dodgy activity on your account' then your heart rate goes up. You're sweaty, you're worried, you're panicking, and you just want to sort it out. They use pressure tactics."
Amy then explained how she was shown two transactions - one she had made and one she hadn't - she clicked yes on the pop up on her phone to the transaction she recognised and that was enough for the fraudsters to get access. She said: "As soon as I clicked 'yes' they had access and managed to get £5,000 from me.
"When you're in the moment on the phone it feels so fast paced. It feels so noisy. It feels. You're hot, you're sweaty and your heart rate's going. And then as soon as you come off the phone, you realise you've been scammed and it's like a deathly silence - you just feel so stupid, so alone and so humiliated."
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Virgin Media O2)Amy was fortunate that she was able to get her money back after her bank conducted an investigation into what had happened even though she said at the time she thought "that's it, they've got my details and they're just going to wipe my account." Amy added that she has "worked for that money and I have to live on it."
Feeling lucky that things weren't much worse and has now collaborated with O2 to help them launch Daisy - an AI granny designed to waste scammers' time - for the Swerve the Scammers campaign. The AI creation is helping to prevent real people from getting scammed as the fake granny tricks the scammers instead.
Amy also reminded victims "it's not your fault. Don't be embarrassed." She explained that the scammers are "literally professionals - their profession is to extort money from people and you've just been a victim of that." She added: "By speaking out you can help others to avoid being scammed."
Amy Hart has teamed up with O2 to raise awareness of phone scams and how you can stay safe by reporting suspicious calls and texts to 7726. To find out more visit o2.co.uk/swervethescammers.
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