Martin Lewis has hit out at the government as the UK suffers an 'epidemic' of scams.
The Money Saving Expert founder appeared on Wednesday's Lorraine with advice on 'how to beat Covid scammers'.
"We have had an absolute epidemic of scams in the UK and it is a major problem," Martin told the ITV show's host Lorraine Kelly.
"I am getting to the end of my tether on this, people know I've been involved in fighting this for about four or five years. Another report came out the other day – the worst compliment I’ve ever had – that my face alongside Richard Branson is the most used by scammers in the UK on scam adverts."
He hit out: "Fraud is the biggest crime in the UK, these are thieves stealing people's money," before adding that it’s 'very easy' to fall for sophisticated scams.
"We don't police it well enough. We've got the Online [Safety] Bill going through parliament, and yet the government has for some reason excluded scam adverts from it."
Martin urged: "It is about time that we took the epidemic of scams in this country […] a bit more seriously," before adding to Lorraine: "That's to the politicians, not to you!"
He criticised the government last week for not including scams in its new online safety plans set out in the Queen's Speech.
Campaigners had hoped that the upcoming Online Safety Bill would include a crackdown on scams but it was not mentioned in the speech nor detailed in plans released afterwards.
Martin said the move leaves criminals to "get away with fraud with impunity", telling the government it has "failed to protect millions".
