This Morning star Martin Lewis launches furious on-air rant about deepfakes: 'It is a disgrace'
The money saving expert has featured in 44 per cent of all scam adsMartin Lewis lashed out on This Morning today over being a victim of deepfake scam adverts, which he has described as a “disgrace”.
The money saving expert, 54, appeared on Tuesday’s edition of the daytime show. He joined the programme’s This Morning View segment.
Martin, along with hosts Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard and fellow guest Nick Ferrari, spoke about the damage deepfakes are causing.
The star revealed he has featured in 44 per cent of all scam ads.
Martin Lewis hits out at ‘deepfakes’ on This Morning
The group were discussing deepfakes. It comes after a recent AI-generated clip appeared on X. It showed a fake altercation between Reform UK leader Nigel Farage and Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey on BBC Question Time.
This prompted Martin to open up about his own experiences.
He said: “Meta it is reported to have made three billion pounds from European scam ads in a year alone.
“I sued Facebook in 2019, I settled for three million pounds to go towards setting up a new anti-scam charity and a tool to report scam ads that I thought that would work. It hasn’t worked.”
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He continued: “I campaigned and led the campaign to get scam adverts in the Online Safety Act, which we got three years ago.”
Martin slams government over scam ads
Martin, visibly shaking with apparent anger, then hit out at the UK government.
He ranted: “They have fundamentally ignored scam adverts. The enormous damage that it does, not just to peoples finances, it is damaging peoples mental health and self-esteem and it’s incredibly destructive.”
Meanwhile, Martin went on to reveal a letter he had received from a 78-year-old. The person had fallen victim by a deepfake AI video scam of Martin on social media.
The star explained that the person had handed over money in the hopes of securing their own flat. However, heartbreakingly, they were conned of their life savings.
Martin raged: “That is what brought me to tears. I fundamentally wish I could tell you that that was a terrible shocking one off and not a daily, DAILY occurrence. This has been going on 10 years. It’s destroying people’s lives.
“The Online Safety Act was meant to change three years. They haven’t even done the consultation on implementation, which means even if they started it tomorrow, they wouldn’t have the rules in place until 2027, leaving more people to be victims.”
‘It’s a disgrace’
Meanwhile, he added: “When the Prime Minister talked about the nidification of AI said if these companies profit from harm and abuse they don’t deserve to self-regulate.
“Well for 10 years they have been making billions of pounds for genuine harm and abuse over scam adverts. Nothing has been done.
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“It is a disgrace. I urge the politicians of every party to change this.”
Finally, Martin concluded: “They should hang their heads in shame that they have ignored hundred of thousands and millions of victims whose lives are destroyed because they are scared of big tech. It’s about time they got some balls.”
