Presenter Helen Skelton has revealed she was scammed out of the huge sum of £70,000, after falling victim to a bank hoax.
She revealed she had taken a fake bank call while looking after her children, and found out she lost the money a few days later after it left her bank account.
She lost her entire life savings to someone claiming to be her bank, so has decided to launch a television show to discuss scamming.
Credit: Getty Images
Speaking on Lorraine today about the horrible incident, she said: “I got phoned up by the bank, told something dodgy had gone on with my account. The next week I had £70,000, all of my savings, had gone. All gone.”
The money was gone after she said she was asked “just a few questions over the phone”.
Lorraine was shocked to hear the terrible news, saying “£70,000? Jesus…”
The call happened during a period of a lot of stress for Helen, as she said: “I had one kid up a tree, one wrestling the dog, another dog throwing up their kids birthday cake, then they phoned me from the bank and said ‘oh, something has gone on’. You don’t question your bank.”
She then elaborated on why she was making the TV show, saying: “The reason I’ve made this programme is because it happens every day of the week. We’re not talking about little old ladies who are victims who don’t understand the internet, that’s a massively naive assumption.
“It’s happening to people and they’re too embarrassed to say that it’s happened. So we’ve got a programme on next week that will hopefully help people be aware, be on guard, and avoid that.”
Helen was on the show to promote her new book, Wild Girl, in which she reveals six of her biggest adventures travelling across the world, trying to show girls can have adventures and aiming to inspire readers to embrace their fears.
