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One woman lost over £11,000 after falling for an online scam which looked like it was endorsed by trusted finance expert Martin Lewis . Like many others, Joy Foster from Stakeford, Northumberland wanted to improve her retirement finances so she could live a comfortable life when she got older. However, feeling as if she was not getting much for her money through ISAs and saving accounts, the 50-year-old resource planner took a different route to build her cash pot last year the Express reports. Joy stumbled across an advert on Facebook which she believed to be the investment opportunity she needed. What sold her was that the advert seemed to be endorsed by Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert.com - but in reality, it was nothing to do with Martin or MSE. Before investing her retirement savings, Joy researched the investment platform and only found glowing reviews of the company on websites such as Trustpilot. This made her feel much more confident with her decision and pushed forward with her plan. Joy said: “I got a phone call guiding me through the platform, showing me how easy it is to take my money out. I invested £250 and I saw returns on it quite quickly. I then invested £2,000. It seemed legit because someone was always calling me every day. They were chatty, friendly and giving me advice and I could see the money growing.” Joy made four payments, increasing the amount every time. Her bank, Chase, questioned the legitimacy of the first couple of transactions, but as Joy believed it was safe, she confirmed the payments to her bank and allowed them to go through. Joy continued with life as normal however she began to have doubts about the investment scheme when she came across a scam awareness campaign from Halifax bank. The scam warning explained what an investment scam was and it sounded eerily similar to what she was doing. This was when alarm bells started to ring. Cadbury admits Roses won't include fan favourite chocolate this Christmas Driver warning parking in certain spots could ramp up cost of car insurance by £100 Joy tried to take her money back however the investment company told her she needed to pay "withdrawal fees" before she could. The company kept promising her cash would be with her by "the end of the week" and then never paying. In a state of panic, Joy went back to the Trustpilot page to see if there was anything there that could help her. This is where she came across a mobile number of a person who said they had been scammed by the investment company. Through contact, Joy was welcomed into a WhatsApp group of fellow victims. One member of the group mentioned they had recovered their money through CEL Solicitors. Believing she had lost her retirement savings forever, Joy decided to contact CEL Solicitors to see if they could help recover anything. Thankfully, after two months CEL Solicitors managed to recover the money she had lost to the investment scam. She continued: "Now I just don’t trust anything. I don’t even have an ISA anymore, my money is in one bank account and I know it’s not growing but I’m just happy with the 4% interest now. I felt stupid. I couldn’t believe I’d been caught out by a scam, I thought I was ahead of that, I’m quite level-headed. My husband was so supportive through it all. I felt awful, this money for retirement was gone. But thankfully I joined this WhatsApp group and found out there is help out there. I feel it’s not promoted enough.” CEL Solicitors works to help victims of all types of fraud recover their losses with the firm saying investment scams are the most common ones they see. Paul Hampson, CEO of CEL Solicitors said: “Scammers go to great lengths to con people, and no one should feel stupid for falling for it. They are making careers out of everyday people’s money, and social media sites and banks should be doing more to stop them. We’re delighted that in this instance, we were able to recover Mrs Foster’s losses and she can continue planning towards that early retirement.” Over the last few years, Martin Lewis has campaigned against the use of scam adverts on social media as his image is often used to promote them. In 2019, he sued Facebook over its approach to tackling scams on its platform. The case was settled out of court and Facebook promised to launch a dedicated tool to report scam ads. The MoneySavingExpert.com website founder frequently warns fans through his TV, radio and podcast appearances that he does not do adverts. The MSE website also has a warning on it. The website warns: “Whether it's Martin's pic on PPI claims firm or boiler incentive ads, scam binary trading ads, energy door-knockers using our name, or Bitcoin pop-ups with an image of Martin encouraging you to invest, they are all an attempt to leech off the hard-earned trust people have in us. Don't touch the ads.” New Look's elasticated knee high boots are great for 'chunky calves,' according to reviews
Read more: mirroruk
