Money Saving Expert founder Martin Lewis has issued a warning over the flood of scam ads using his name and even claiming he’s been arrested or died.
Posting to his Twitter account, Martin issued a plea to his millions of followers to report any scam ads. Several fake ads circulating mainly on ‘X’ appear to show false stories about Martin being arrested, or AI videos of fights with key political figures like Andy Burnham and others such as Nigel Farage. Some even try to mimic trusted news sites like the BBC.
Martin said: “You may have seen the news that I’ve been arrested! (Or beaten up, in a fight with Andy Burnham, Nigel Farage or the Bank of England boss, or even that I’ve died).
“Thankfully, as far as I’m aware, none have ever happened. These are criminal scammers’ fake ads. They’re rife on social media right now. They’re trying to get you to click to fake sites.
“I don’t do any ads, never mind for Quantum AI, Bitcoin Trader, Bitcoin Code, or ‘stuff the establishment don’t want you to know’. Please be vigilant.”
Back in 2024, Martin told his followers how the top 20 most popular celebrities for scam ads include singers like Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran as well as popular presenter Jeremy Clarkson and Hollywood stars like Johnny Depp or Keanu Reeves.
Talking on his The Martin Lewis Podcast at the time, Martin said: “Many people think of scams as a light term but we should think about it like organised crime. It’s organised crime to try and steal money off people using suspicious devious psychologically adept forms of marketing to try and grab people’s money.
“So don’t assume that these criminal scammers are just randomly pumping out ads. In fact it’s almost certain that they have their own in-house dark web digital marketing teams who research which celebrities and advert types get the best click-through rates and then hone in again once they’ve got that data on which of them are most likely to attract people who will then be vulnerable enough to give them money and will make the mistake of giving them money.”
Martin Lewis then warned his followers not to trust his face on ads especially, adding: “One in three scams involve me. I never wanted to get into being a campaigner on scams. My whole thing is about showing people how to save money not preventing them losing money, but when you’re in a third of the adverts out there, the worst bloody compliment I’ve ever received, you have to start campaigning on it.
“The great frustration for me is if there’s an advert with me in it, it’s always a scam because I don’t do ads.
“I successfully sued Facebook for £3million … but online advertising is still a wild west.”
