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Traitors star says he lost life savings to a scam
TL;DR
Sam Little, a former contestant on The Traitors, lost £40,000 in a phishing scam. He is now warning others about the ease of falling victim to such scams.
Key points
- Sam Little lost £40,000 to a phishing scam
- The scam involved fraudulent text messages
- He has not recovered any of his money
Mentioned in this story
Sam LittleBBC
A former contestant of BBC show The Traitors is speaking out about falling victim to a phishing scam.
Sam Little, 35 from Yarm, near Middlesborough, has revealed he was scammed out of £40,000 life savings, an experience he describes as "gut-wrenching".
Little lost the funds in cryptocurrency, an investment set aside, he said, for when he and his wife were ready to start a family.
He says he has not been able to recover any of his money and now wants to warn others about how easy it is to be scammed.
He told the BBC how he had received text messages from what he believed to be a trusted bank, saying there had been multiple attempts to log in to his account and advising him to ring them.
While on the call, he logged into the online platform, but he said he was not suspicious: "They didn't ask me for any passwords, they didn't ask me for any verification codes".
"They were somehow able to hack into the web page I would normally interact with.
"Before I knew it, the phone went dead and everything had gone".
It did not take long for Little to realise what had happened. "It feels like your world's just collapsing," he said.
"You work solidly for years to build this up, and it's just gone."
Since the scam, which happened in January this year, Little has spent time researching such thefts and just how common they are.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.6 million people are affected by cybercrime and fraud every year in the UK, and between 2024 and 2025 there was a 31% increase in the number of cases.
Little reported the scam to Report Fraud, run by City of London Police. However, he says there has so far not been an investigation.
The BBC has contacted Report Fraud and a spokesperson said: "We are in the process of exploring this report by carrying out a manual review. Crypto wallets are a complex area of policing and will take time to resolve."
In the meantime, Little hopes that by sharing his story, he may prevent others from going through the same thing.
"I like to think I'm savvy, but it can catch anyone."
"It's really scary".
Q&A
How much money did Sam Little lose to the scam?
Sam Little lost £40,000 of his life savings to a phishing scam.
What type of scam did Sam Little fall victim to?
Sam Little fell victim to a phishing scam that involved fraudulent text messages from what he thought was his bank.
What was Sam Little's intention for the money he lost?
Sam Little intended to use the £40,000 for starting a family with his wife.
