Martin Lewis warns ‘scams can happen to anyone’ after almost falling for one himself.

Money expert Martin Lewis has issued a fresh warning about phone scams after almost falling prey to one himself.

The 54-year-old host of The Martin Lewis Money show is widely known for his financial tips on how to save money or making better financial decisions for your future,

But despite his high knowledge on protecting yourself from financial scams, Lewis claims that he almost got caught out by a Amazon phony iPhone order scam during a busy day - prompting him to warn the public that scams can happen to anyone.

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, said: “Carers are some of society’s most unsung heroes. They’re already hard done by, so even one council listing the wrong information – which risked deterring carers from claiming much needed help – would’ve been one too many." (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images for the NTA's)

placeholder image — Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, said: “Carers are some of society’s most unsung heroes. They’re already hard done by, so even one council listing the wrong information – which risked deterring carers from claiming much needed help – would’ve been one too many." (Photo by Lia Toby/Getty Images for the NTA's)

In a post on social media, he explained: “Scams can happen to anyone! I nearly got caught by one yesterday. I was in the studio, rushed in between recording my two podcasts. I got a Whatsapp call from 'Amazon'.

“Brain elsewhere, man on phone asked 'had I ordered a new iPhone?' as they had reports of suspected fraud. I said no. He said to cancel he'd sent me a six-digit code to reply to. I was feeling rushed and pressured, as the team needed to record, but finally enough of my brain turned onto the call and alarm bells started.

“I said I wanted to first check that this call was legit. He got pushy and said if I didn't send the code he wouldn't stop the iPhone being sent. This felt wrong to me... why would he want to risk sending a high value item, if the customer says it wasn't ordered.

“So while talking & prepping the podcast, I managed to search the telephone number and yes, it was a recognised 'Amazon scam number.' Clearly, had I replied with the code he'd sent he would have then asked for further details and that would've started the data mine.

“Of course, by answering (not something I normally do to unknown numbers, but did by reflex) I did inadvertently confirm that my number is a real one, so I'll have to cope with that.

“The real lesson here is how sophisticated and plausible it was. And even though I'm obviously hyper-alert to scams as my face is in half of them, catch someone at the wrong time, when they're not paying attention, and anyone can be caught out!”