Love Island's Amy Hart has opened up about being scammed out of thousands after fraudsters used a clever tactic.
The ITV star, 32, spoke exclusively to Daily Star as she opened up about the "eerie silence" she felt after realising she had lost thousands of her hard-earned cash.
As she promoted O2's new anti-scammer initiative, Amy explained: "My experience is actually number spoofing, they must time it so well. They called me from a number, I didn't answer it, I went on to Google and I did everything you're supposed to do.
Click for more brilliant Daily Star showbiz stories
"I googled the number and it said my banks fraud team. So then, as I read that, they phoned back. So they must have literally sit there and be like, 123, call back, and so they called me back. So I answered it.
They knew my name. They knew what my debit card ended in they knew a lot of information about me, which scammers always do. They can find out they have sorts of things about you and they said they've been some dodgy transactions on my accounts."
Amy continued: "Obviously I started to panic. So I'd say to anyone, take a breath. Think about it, go and check your internet banking.
"I checked my internet banking and there wasn't anything on there. So I said, Are you sure? And they said, Yes, have you done any of these transactions? And I got a text come through, and I had done one of them, but I hadn't done the other one.
"And I said to them, Well, I haven't done one this one, but they said if you've done one of them, you need to click 'Yes'. So I did. And then that was basically me authorizing the massive payment to them. I had £5,000 taken from me."
Amy then revealed how she felt in that moment and said: "The thing is such an adrenaline thing. So while you're on the phone, you're panicking and then when you get off the phone and you realize you've been scammed, it's like an eerie silence.
"Your heart has been going and you're hot and you're sweaty. And I ran inside and said to my boyfriend, like, I don't know what's going on, what's going on. I can't believe this happened to me. I thought, do I put it on Instagram? Do I share this? I thought that's so embarrassing, but I realise now that it's not.
"People think it's just old people that get scammed, or 'stupid' people, but I see myself as quite technically literate and as someone who is quite intelligent, and I still got scammed."
Amy has teamed up with O2 to promote their new campaign as they have created human-like AI ‘Granny’ to answer calls in real time from fraudsters, keeping them on the phone and away from customers for as long as possible.
Trained using cutting-edge AI technology and real scambaiter content, lifelike ‘Daisy’ is indistinguishable from a real person and fools scammers into thinking they’ve found a perfect target when really, she’s beating them at their own horrible game.
O2 is urging customers to remain vigilant, leave ‘scambaiting’ to the AI experts and report suspected fraudulent calls and texts for free to 7726.
Amy Hart has teamed up with O2 to raise awareness of phone scams and how Brits can stay safe by reporting suspicious calls and texts to 7726. To find out more visit o2.co.uk/swervethescammers
Want all the biggest Showbiz and TV news straight to your inbox? Sign up for our free Daily Star Showbiz newsletter.
English (US) ·