I saw my elderly mum yesterday and she said that she had something pop up on her phone about Martin Lewis having a spat with the Governor of the Bank of England on Question Time and that it had led her to register for an opportunity to make money by investing £250.

She asked if I had the iPlayer on my TV so that she could see the Question Time episode as she had missed it. I took a look and the last episode had been a couple of weeks before and not last week like she said this episode had been. Alarm bells immediately rang in my head (although they had already started prior to this to be honest) so I said let’s just Google it to see if it was a scam.

I couldn’t really find anything that said about a spat between Martin Lewis and the Governor of the BOE but there was plenty popping up about Nigel Farage being in the same situation. There was even a video which likely was created with AI.

If you check out previous episodes of Question Time on the iPlayer then you will not find an episode that has a spat between either Martin Lewis or Nigel Farage and the Governor of the Bank of England,

Despite heading for her late eighties she is pretty savvy and independent but she has been a victim of a couple of scams before. The problem is they are so convincing these days I don’t think she realises how much can be faked by AI etc these days.

She showed me the email that had come from the company that she had registered with – a company called 501fx. It appears that they are not regulated with the FCA and recent reviews on Trustpilot had a lot of bad feedback. There are also some good reviews but these to me seem manufactured to try to balance everything out.

She agreed that it was probably a scam (luckily she hadn’t sent any money – I think they ask for  £250 initial investment) and deleted the emails. Hopefully she won’t get any calls or further contact from this company (or any other that they pass her information on to).

I think it’s important to note that these scams are becoming ever more sophisticated and people can be easily fooled. But if anyone says that they can make you money quickly and you don’t get a personal recommendation from someone that has previously used them, then DO NOT SEND ANY MONEY. At the least, Google the company you are dealing with and the situation that lead you to them and see if anyone has reported it as a scam.

There is no get rich quick scheme (at least not a legitimate, viable one), much as we would all like there to be.

So just do a little bit of research before sending money to anyone and if in doubt maybe talk to a family member or trusted friend. And if you have sent money to these people then contact your bank to try to get the money back and don’t send more funds to ‘release’ the cash.