Mr Cairns, who has a two-word warning for people who see these adverts, said: ‘I would rather use the money investing through proper channels and with proper investigation, and have something nice to retire with.
After that Mr Cairns wanted to stop immediately and close his account to get his money back but was ‘palmed off’, eventually deciding to take the loss.
Mr Cairns has now enlisted the help of National Fraud Helpline solicitors to try to recover his money from banks Santander and Chase, who they say have a duty of care to protect their customers from fraud.
John Cairns, 61, lost £3,250 after seeing a convincing video on Facebook purporting to be Musk, the world’s richest man, advising people to invest £250 in a new AI trading platform.
But when Mr Cairns began to make more money, the ‘account manager’ became pushier and refused to let him withdraw his profits.
