Phishing Scam Leaves Traitors Contestant £40k Short

Sam Little, a former contestant on BBC's The Traitors, has spoken out about losing £40,000 to a phishing scam in cryptocurrency. The 35-year-old from Yarm, near Middlesbrough, describes the experience as 'gut-wrenching'.

The scam occurred in January this year when Little received text messages from what he believed was his bank, advising him to ring them due to multiple login attempts. He rang the number and logged into the online platform without being asked for passwords or verification codes.

'They were somehow able to hack into the web page I would normally interact with,' Little said. 'Before I knew it, the phone went dead and everything had gone.'

Since the scam, Little has researched cybercrime and fraud in the UK, where 4.6 million people are affected every year. Between 2024 and 2025, there was a 31% increase in cases.