An Edinburgh woman appeared on Good Morning Britain after losing £17,000 to a deepfake scam.
Nikki MacLeod, 77, was tricked by someone pretending to be a woman named Alla Morgan who worked on ‘an oil rig in the North Sea’. She met the woman in an online chat group, and then received convincing personal messages and AI-generated videos.
Nikki was on Tuesday morning’s episode to raise awareness of sophisticated scammers. Viewers branded the interview ‘excruciating’ after host Ed ‘repeatedly interrupted’, reports the Manchester Evening News.
READ MORE –Tributes pour in for former Scotland rugby captain after he dies in Edinburgh hospital
READ MORE –Plans for East Lothian vets to become Portuguese restaurant and takeaway
At various stages during the interview, the duo were talking on top of each other, leading some viewers to claim she ‘couldn’t get a word in edgeways’.
Taking to Twitter, now X, one person said: “That was excruciating #GMB”, a different account put: “Ed can’t get a word in edgeways”, another put: “Think Ed wants to end the interview #gmb” while another added: “She’s totally ignoring Ed!”
Yet following the chat, Susanna, 54, explained that there had been a technical blunder as Nikki’s earpiece had fallen out, meaning she couldn’t hear Ed and hadn’t realised she was talking over him.
Susanna said: “We apologise to Nikki because unfortunately she lost her earpiece which meant she couldn’t hear what you were saying, Ed, that’s why we had to just interrupt her.”
Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox
It comes as Good Morning Britain turned awkward on Monday as Ed was called out by a guest for looking ‘baffled’.
During the episode, Ed and Susanna spoke to comedian Jenny Eclair amid her current tour. However, during the interview, things took an awkward turn when Jenny called out Ed for not getting one of her jokes.
After telling the gag, Jenny, 64, said: “Ed’s looking a bit blank, I don’t think he got that joke!” prompting the comedian to repeat it again.
However, Ed didn’t get the joke again to which Susanna quipped: “Let’s hope you don’t have to explain the other jokes!” while Ed joked: “I can’t wait to come [to the tour].”
Join Edinburgh Live’s Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
To which Jenny said: “No, please don’t, and if you do, please sit at the back so I can’t see your baffled little face.
“I don’t mind, sometimes you get some people who have great faces for watching comedy and then there’s people like Ed, who just go: ‘Oh, what? What, I don’t get?'” as Jenny repeated the joke again.
However, this prompted Ed to admit: “To be honest, I’ve no idea what’s going on. Where am I?”
Following the interview, Jenny took to Twitter, now X, to write: “Job jobbed! I told a joke that Ed didn’t understand! Not my finest TV moment- ha!”
Good Morning Britain continues on weekdays at 6am on both ITV and ITV X.