BBC
A former contestant of BBC show The Traitors is speaking out about falling victim to a phishing scam.
Sam Little, 35 from Yarm, near Middlesborough, has revealed he was scammed out of £40,000 life savings, an experience he describes as "gut-wrenching".
Little lost the funds in cryptocurrency, an investment set aside, he said, for when he and his wife were ready to start a family.
He says he has not been able to recover any of his money and now wants to warn others about how easy it is to be scammed.
'The phone went dead'
He told the BBC how he had received text messages from what he believed to be a trusted bank, saying there had been multiple attempts to log in to his account and advising him to ring them.
While on the call, he logged into the online platform, but he said he was not suspicious: "They didn't ask me for any passwords, they didn't ask me for any verification codes".
"They were somehow able to hack into the web page I would normally interact with.
"Before I knew it, the phone went dead and everything had gone".
It did not take long for Little to realise what had happened. "It feels like your world's just collapsing," he said.
"You work solidly for years to build this up, and it's just gone."
Since the scam, which happened in January this year, Little has spent time researching such thefts and just how common they are.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.6 million people are affected by cybercrime and fraud every year in the UK, and between 2024 and 2025 there was a 31% increase in the number of cases.
Little reported the scam to Report Fraud, run by City of London Police. However, he says there has so far not been an investigation.
The BBC has contacted Report Fraud and a spokesperson said: "We are in the process of exploring this report by carrying out a manual review. Crypto wallets are a complex area of policing and will take time to resolve."
In the meantime, Little hopes that by sharing his story, he may prevent others from going through the same thing.
"I like to think I'm savvy, but it can catch anyone."