The BBC will showcase a host of new commissions across the week commencing 23 October for Be Scam Safe week. With scammers emboldened as the cost of living crisis continues to place a strain on people’s pockets, the BBC will provide a timely exploration into this burgeoning industry.

There will be coverage across the week on TV, Radio, iPlayer and online to educate and inform audiences on how best to avoid a scam, and what to do if you’ve been caught up in one.

The Be Scam Safe campaign is expected to be the largest consumer campaign in recent history, set to reach more people than ever before with a clear unified call to action to stop scammers.

Leading the way, BBC One is releasing the latest run of all new episodes of the BAFTA-nominated show Scam Interceptors presented by Rav Wilding, investigative journalist Nick Stapleton and ethical hacker Jim Browning on Monday 23rd October, with all episodes dropping on iPlayer on the same day.

Nick has also authored articles for BBC News Online and BBC Bitesize, delving into one of the key investigations covered in the latest series of Scam Interceptors, as well as highlighting the top three most common scams and how avoid them.

Throughout the week, Morning Live will launch its very own sub-campaign called ‘Stick It To The Scammers’. The campaign sees stickers distributed direct to the audience to act as visual reminders to stop and think if contacted out of the blue. The One Show will be supporting throughout the week with Watchdog’s Matt Allwright arming viewers of both shows with expert advice to keep them and their money safe.

BBC Radio 4’s Money Box will do two separate shows, with the team going to a bank’s fraud call centre in Sunderland, as well as interviewing Adrian Searle, Director of the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre.

BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show will run a dedicated scam story on October 26.

Airing on air Monday 23 October, BBC Three documentary, Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang will follow James Blake – a 30-year-old entrepreneur from Lisburn – as he uncovers a world of organised crime on his fight to get his identity back.

All of the BBC’s scam content will be easily accessible through the Be Scam Safe website (www.bbc.co.uk/bescamsafe), with everything being amplified on the BBC’s social media platforms throughout the week using the hashtag #BeScamSafe.

Rachel Platt, Commissioning Editor for BBC Daytime who has led the Be Scam Safe campaign says: “With fraud now accounting for 40% of all crime in the UK, raising awareness is more important than ever.

“Being scammed can be a devastating experience for victims of fraud and the impact is often so much more than simply financial. The BBC is uniquely placed to use its wide range of experts and platforms to reach and empower our audiences. It’s great to pull everything together in one place, for a whole week, as we look to arm people with the tools they need to stay safe.”

Programming information

#TV & BBC iPlayer

iPlayer

All special-programming and archived content will be included under a dedicated section on iPlayer titled ‘Scams, Fakes and Fraudsters’.

Scam Interceptors

The TV-BAFTA nominated series Scam Interceptors will release its latest run of episodes. Hosts Rav Wilding and Nick Stapleton join up with ethical hacker Jim Browning as they continue to hold unscrupulous scammers to account from Scam Interceptors HQ

Following suit from the previous instalment, these fresh episodes of the second series will not only showcase the hackers’ sophisticated strategies to stop victims handing over their cash in real-time, but also delve into the personal stories of those directly affected by these industrial-scale scams.

Scam Interceptors will air weekdays at 10:00am on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 23 October, with all 10 episodes dropping on iPlayer on the same day.

Morning Live

Morning Live will launch its very own sub-campaign called ‘Stick It To The Scammers’. The initiative will distribute free sticker packs direct to audiences through various channels, carrying simple messages from the Be Scam Safe campaign. The content is designed to be positioned close to landline phones and directly on mobile phones to serve as a visual reminder that it’s crucial to stop and think when you are contacted out of the blue.

Morning Live experts including Matt Allwright, Rav Wilding, and Michelle Ackerley will be on hand in the studio throughout the week to offer crucial consumer advice.

The Morning Live family will also be out in local communities sharing stories, handing out stickers, and raising further awareness of the Stick It To The Scammers campaign.

Morning Live content will run throughout the week from 9.15am on BBC One and iPlayer from Monday 23 October.

The One Show

Across the week, The One Show will be supporting Morning Live with their ‘Stick it to the Scammers’ campaign and exposing the fraudsters who are trying to steal our identity.

The consumer affairs feature Watchdog will also be digging into how the latest AI technology is being utilised by criminals in increasingly sophisticated scams.

Elsewhere across the week the team will be speaking to some of the people who’ve had their identities stolen and lost money including actor Will Mellor, providing invaluable and empowering advice on how to avoid being scammed.

The One Show content will run throughout the week from 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer from Monday 23rd October.

Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang

BBC Three and BBC One Northern Ireland will be showcasing a documentary following James Blake – a 30-year-old entrepreneur from Lisburn.

Having posted his life on social media, James’ identity is stolen and used in scams. In a fight to stop the scammers, he uncovers a world of organised crime.

James’ attempt to find out more and get his online identity back takes him on an international journey where he discovers that shockingly it’s not only those being conned who are the victims here. Many of those carrying out the con are suffering too – at the hands of gangs behind this modern-day crime.

Hunting the Catfish Crime Gang will air Monday 23 October on BBC Three at 9pm and Tuesday 24 October on BBC One and BBC One NI at 10:40pm

BBC Radio & Sounds

Radio 4 – Moneybox

The show featuring the latest news and advice on the world of personal finance, Radio 4’s Money Box will release two separate programs.

The programme will speak to one of the most senior law enforcement officials in the UK responsible for combatting fraud – Adrian Searle, Director of the NCA’s National Economic Crime Centre. They’ll find out about what action law enforcement is taking behind the scenes to disrupt organised criminal gangs perpetrating frauds on victims across the country, how they try to stop fraud from happening in the first place and how the complex web of international criminals often involved in fraud means multi-agency, global partnerships are needed to try to stop it. The interview will also run across News programmes and platforms.

On Wednesday 25, Money Box Live goes behind the scenes on the front line of the fight against fraud as the team visit one of TSB’s fraud call centres in Sunderland. The call handlers there are very often the first people victims speak to once they realised they’ve been targeted had their money stolen. How do these scams entrap their victims, where does the money go and how is the banking industry responding to the ever growing threat of fraud? MBL will find out.

Radio 2 – Jeremy Vine

BBC Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine Show will run a dedicated scam story on 26 October.

BBC News

Scam Interceptors Day

On Thursday 26 October BBC News will do a ‘Scam Interceptors Day’, with BBC Radio 5 Live and the News Channel on the ground at Scam Interceptors HQ in Glasgow with correspondent Lucy Grey.

There will be interviews with presenters of the show Rav Wilding and Nick Stapleton, as the team get a series of live hits throughout the day. The show’s anonymous YouTube sensation and ‘ethical hacker’ Jim Browning will also do interviews, plus audiences hear from case studies who’ve featured on previous episodes.

BBC News Online

BBC News Online will run two articles from Nick Stapleton on Homepage.

One examines one of the high-profile investigations to be revealed in the forthcoming series of Scam Interceptors. It casts a light on exactly how the scam operates as well as revealing one of the key actors at play.

The second piece is titled ‘Five Scams to Watch Out For Right Now’ which explores the: The “Hi Mum” scam, loan fee fraud, online marketplace scams, ‘pig butchering’ and social media account hacking.

BBC Bitesize

‘3 Common Online Scams and how you can protect yourself from them’

BBC Bitesize will publish a piece on the Study Support section of their website.

The article will feature advice from investigative reporter and presenter of BBC One’s Scam Interceptors Nick Stapleton.

It will delve into social media hacking, account recovery hacking and phishing, providing clear and robust advice on how remain protected in the face of these cyber-threats, as well as including comments from Dr Allison Attrill-Smith, a cyberpsychologist who specialises in scams at the University of Birmingham.