A 59-year-old woman has lost her life savings and taken out loans totalling £75,000 after falling victim to a cryptocurrency scam advertised on Facebook that falsely claimed to be endorsed by consumer champion Martin Lewis. The victim, identified only as Jane, was considering opening an Isa when she saw a promotion for 'Current Coins' on Facebook in December last year, which turned out to be a complex crypto scam.
Jane initially invested a few hundred pounds but was manipulated into handing over more money under intense time pressure, with scammers threatening she would lose everything already invested. Some of the savings were intended for her wedding. She said: 'I was tricked, lied to and coerced into handing over £75,000, which was my life savings plus £50,000 in loans – £20,000 of this was a loan applied for online fraudulently in my name.'
Her bank has written off a £30,000 loan as a goodwill gesture but will not refund her lost savings. A second £20,000 loan from a different provider means she remains liable for that debt. She is pursuing complaints through the Financial Ombudsman Service. 'I have never gone through so much mental anguish in my life or been so ill,' she said.
The scam is part of a surge in fraud on Meta platforms, which also include Instagram and WhatsApp. Banks report that such scams are expected to cost UK households £250m this year. TSB said Meta platforms hosted 87% of all investment fraud cases at the bank last year. Action Fraud recorded 1,095 investment fraud cases related to Facebook by 31 May, with victims losing £18.6m.
Martin Lewis previously took legal action against Facebook in 2018 over scam adverts using his image, settling in 2019 after the firm promised to donate £3m to an anti-scams project. Under the upcoming Online Safety Bill, social media platforms will be required to remove paid-for scam adverts. Katie Watts of MoneySavingExpert.com warned: 'Neither MoneySavingExpert nor our founder, Martin Lewis, ever advertise or endorse financial products or investments; ads like these are always a scam.'
