BBC Look North's Peter Levy issues warning after falling for phone scam

BBC Look North presenter Peter Levy has urged people to be vigilant after being scammed out of half his life savings. The 68-year-old told Richard Stead on Radio Humberside that he fell victim to a scam earlier this year and said he didn't sleep for many days because of it. The incident, which Peter described as 'traumatic', happened in early February and is still being 'sorted out' to this day, reports the Mirror Online.

Peter, who has confirmed that money has been recovered from the scammers, according to the Express, said: "It is the most horrific, horrific feeling. It's absolutely awful, you feel stupid, you feel thick, you feel... It happened in February and it is still being sorted out. Just this lunchtime I've been to a bank. It's awful, so when people talk about the scams it is dreadful, it's awful."

The interview went on to discuss the dangers of people using obvious passwords, such as 'Peter123', across all their online accounts. Peter then admitted: "I'll be honest, I've got the same for everything. I don't use 'Peter1234', it's a lot better than that but it is the same thing and you shouldn't do that. But how do you remember all the different [passwords]?"

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Richard then explained how some phones suggest useful passwords to use. Peter discussed how many people are going through the same thing and added: "It is so traumatising and upsetting It's dreadful. You can't sleep, you can't do anything. You feel helpless and I fell for something...

"It was about 20 past seven in the evening and this is a good one to watch out. They ring up and say things like, 'This is the fraud department of Richard Stead Bank. We've noticed some unusual activity on your account. Have you spent £500 in the last hour?' And I said, 'No, I haven't spent £500 in the last hour. I've been at work'."

The scammers then asked Peter to log into his bank account to 'do some security checks'. Despite doing many interviews and discussions about scams, he 'fell for it badly'. He said: "There are scams going on at the moment and this is a good one to remember. And again, I have to sub it down slightly. The bank has told me this in the last couple of weeks...

"You go in to a public car park and there's a queue for the pay machine so you want to scan the app on the wall... Don't do that because those are being [used for scams]. Queue, be patient, don't use the app on the wall."

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