Traitors contestant loses life savings to crypto scam

Sam Little thought he was too "savvy" to spot a scam, but he has gone public to explain about how he was conned out of his life savings.

The 35-year old, who was a contestant on series 4 of The Traitors, explains how he was contacted via text message by who he believed to be his bank, who said there had been attempts to log into his cryptocurrency account and for him to ring them. While on the call, he logged into his online crypto account, where the thieves stole £40,000 from him in a matter of seconds.

This was a phishing scam, and the problem with cryptocurrency is that you have very little recourse if something goes wrong. However, it also highlights how sometimes it is those who think they can spot a scam are the ones who can be more likely to fall victim to one.

Forbes published an article suggesting that:

"[w]ell-educated people with their cognitive abilities intact frequently are victims of scams, partly because they were confident they didn’t fit the profile of fraud victims and couldn’t fall for one. That made them less careful."

It also claims that the biggest scams at present are based on fear, which makes sense in the case of Little - he thought there was issue with his life savings, understandably panicked and let his guard down, especially as the warning came from a number which he thought was legitimate. Taking a moment to stop, think and take the emotional aspect out of the equation could be the difference between spotting a scam and potentially losing tens of thousands of pounds.