Sam Little, who appeared on season four of the BBC show The Traitors, has revealed to his followers that he has been the victim of a "gut-wrenching" scam. The Account Manager from North Yorkshire detailed how he was scammed earlier this year and the emotional impact it has had on his family.
How the Scam Unfolded
In a video shared on Instagram, Sam explained that he received a text notification from a verified banking number regarding his cryptocurrency account. "I sat on the sofa with my wife watching TV, and I get a text notification from a verified banking number, and it wasn't incessant. It was maybe once or twice over the previous three days that they said there's been an attempt, someone trying to get into your account," Sam began.
He called the number provided and spoke to individuals who seemed helpful and knowledgeable. The scammers used a dummy account to duplicate his own, and he did not have to enter any passwords or codes. "Then they started to use fear tactics around we need to act quickly on this before anyone else might get into the account. Now I had several different investments across the accounts and lost all of them," he said.
The Moment of Realization
Sam became suspicious only after his wife, Alex, googled the number he had called. "There was the most sickening moment when Alex, my wife, came in and she'd googled the number that I'd rang and it just said red flag UK phishing number scam, do not call. My heart and everything just fell through the floor. By that point, it was too late. They'd emptied everything. They quickly hung up. I tried to ring back, couldn't get through. And then, panic just sets in. And I'm talking like this was £40,000."
He described the loss as life savings, including funds intended for a baby. "This was like life savings. God, it's even difficult thinking about it now, because it's emotional, you create emotional attachments to this. My wife's self-employed, this was like baby fund. You work for, you work hard, you work for years to build this up, and it's gone like in an instant," he said.
Plea for Help
Sam reported the incident to the police, and an investigation is ongoing. He made a plea to his followers: "This is a call for help as well. If anyone knows any other ways that I can be thinking about trying to recoup some of this, please do let me know, because I'm feeling like I'm exhausting every avenue and trying to get some, some, some sort of compensation, but not hopeful."
He emphasized that he wanted to share his story to help others: "I want to be clear, this is not like a 'woe is me', I'm not getting my violin out, but I just want to be able to tell people that it's firstly, if it happens to you, it's fine to talk about it, because it's so, so common." He admitted feeling shame and embarrassment but decided to open up because "the more I thought about it, the more selfish I thought it was not to share this."
Support from Fellow Castmates
His followers quickly rallied around him, with fellow Traitors castmates commending him for sharing his story. Amanda Collier replied: "Hey Sam and Alex, I'm absolutely gutted for you my friends. That certainly is a great deal of money, thank you for sharing your experience, like you say I too hope the video ends up somewhere where it can do some good for you and anyone else watching xx Lots of love you guys and thank you for sharing."
Stephen Libby, who was a traitor in the series, commented: "Sam I'm both heartbroken and furious that you've gone through this, it's honestly devastating to know that what you've spent your life putting away for your family can be taken away from you in an instant. Thank you for using your horrendous situation to try and help others, which you definitely will have done. Sending all my love to you and Alex and the next pint is on me."
Roxy Wilson commented: "This is really brave of you to share Sam, so sorry this happened to you. I'm sure this video will circulate enough to help others!" Jade Scott added: "This is utterly gut wrenching. I hope you and Alex are okay and manage to resolve it. It's the worst."
