BBC presenter 'can't sleep' after losing half his life savings in 'traumatic' online scam

BBC Radio Humberside newsreader Peter Levy warned listeners to be careful after revealing he had been scammed out of half his life savings.

The 68-year-old told Richard Stead that he had fallen victim to a scam earlier this year and lost sleep over it for many days.

The incident, which Peter said was 'traumatic' happened in early February and is still being 'sorted out' to this day, the Mirror reports.

The TV and Radio presenter 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."

Peter and Richard went on to talk about the dangers of using obvious passwords such as 'Peter123' across all of their online accounts.

Peter then confessed: "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]?"

Richard then explained how some phones suggest strong passwords to use as Peter further explained his devastating situation.

He said: "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.

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"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'."

Peter then recounted how the scammers had asked him to log into his bank account to 'do some security checks'.

Despite doing many interviews and discussions about online scams, he admitted 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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