Last night on Thursday March 13th 2025, WRS Co-Founder & Expert Solicitor Josh Chinn appeared on ITV’s The Tonight Show as part of a segment on the rise of online scams and fraudulent investments. More and more, and with ever increasing sophistication, scammers are impersonating celebrities, including creating fake ads that push fraudulent investments, leading to devastating financial losses for victims. So, how are criminals using famous faces to deceive the public and what can we do to protect ourselves? ITV’s Alex Beresford – whose own identity was used by scammers – investigates further, which you can watch here on ITV-X.
As our founder, solicitor and recovery specialist discussed, WRS successfully recovered our client Wayne’s £150,000 investment by proving negligence on the part of his bank, Nationwide, which claims to have improved its procedures since 2019. Despite enhanced protective measures by banks, solicitors report ongoing high levels of fraud cases with an estimated £10 million lost to fraudsters weekly. The problem appears much larger than reported, as many clients haven’t come forward. Online fraud schemes are evolving at a frightening pace, even including fake voice messages and scam videos impersonating celebrities to deceive people into fraudulent investments. ITV’s Alex Beresford explores these scams in the segment, having experienced identity misuse himself.
But, in truth, this is barely the tip of the iceberg for this subject, sadly, Wayne’s case & situation is a very common occurrence. Various types of Romance Scams, Fraudulent Online Investment Platforms, Scammers posing as legitimate brokers or investment advisors, and various other sophisticated scams are on the rise with millions of pounds lost every week. WRS see this every single day and would encourage anyone who thinks they’ve been a victim of a scam to get in touch today!
