Veteran BBC presenter reveals he has lost half his life savings in bank scam

A veteran BBC news presenter has revealed he was conned out of half of his life savings by a bank scammer.

Peter Levy, who presents the news in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, said fell for the “horrific” trick in February.

Speaking to BBC Radio Humberside, the 69-year-old said he felt “thick” after realising he had fallen for a scam which started with an early morning call from someone pretending to be from his bank.

He said: “They ring up and say things like, 'This is the fraud department. We've noticed some unusual activity on your account. Have you spent £500 in the last hour?' And I said, 'No, I haven't spent £500 in the last hour. I've been at work'."

He was then persuaded to to log into his bank account to carry out security checks and said despite having interviewed victims of other scams during his lengthy career he “fell for it badly”.

He added: "It is so traumatising and upsetting. You cannot sleep. You cannot do anything. You feel helpless and I fell for something."

Levy said he was still dealing with the fallout from the scam and used his own story to advise listeners to make sure they had secure passwords for their online accounts.

He also recommended people not to use their phone to scan QR codes on walls to pay for things like parking.

He said people would be safer from scams if they were prepared to “queue, be patient, do not use the app on the wall”.