Lisa Riley 'heartbroken' after losing £10k in ticket scam gift to late mother

The actress, who plays Mandy Dingle on beloved ITV soap Emmerdale, was trying to buy tickets to see Wonder perform with her late mother, Cath, who “idolised” the singer.Riley, 50, explained that the tickets sold out within two hours and she was unable to get one, so she googled resale tickets and found a “VIP package” website.She said the page looked incredibly professional and bought tickets to treat her mother, who died aged 57 following a cancer battle in 2012.“I'm quite an astute girl, I looked at the whole page, it was flawless,” she explained to Good Morning Britain hosts Kate Garraway and Ranvir Singh on Friday morning. After she had put in her credit card details, her bank alerted her to suspicious activity and it emerged that scammers had spent £9,600 of her money.Lisa Riley was scammed out of almost £10,000ITVThey splashed the money on “loads of different things”, including car lessons, in an incredibly short amount of time.Reflecting on the “heartbreaking” scam, she said she was eventually able to get the money back through her insurance.The TV star explained that she travels to New York every year and renews her ESTA [Electronic System for Travel Authorization] every two years.She knew the website used to apply for the ESTA and thought the page looked no different than the usual one, so she failed to spot the fraud. Read MoreShe failed to have the ESTA confirmed like she normally would have by the next day - and instead received a suspicious email that alerted her to the process being fake. Riley recalled thinking: “This is so, so frightening, [the scammers] could make up a passport in my name!”She also fell victim to a fake visa scamGettyShe went to Liverpool to change her passport and also changed her other details, but added: “I'm petrified that all my details are still out there.”She soap star urged others to “take a breath” while applying for visas and stay vigilant online, advising people to “automatically presume that it is going to be a scam” to stay alert.She has had four failed IVF attempts in the past.Reflecting on all her recent interactions with scams and AI pranks, she told Garraway and Singh: “I just think... please leave me alone.”The TV star, who is in a relationship with musician Al Benkovic, called out the “absolutely horrendous” fake pregnancy photos last week.The images include one of her holding an infant, and an edited snap showing her proudly displaying a sonogram – implying that she is pregnant.Alongside a number of angry emojis, Riley wrote: “THIS HAS TO STOP!!!!! It’s absolutely horrendous!!! Saying that I’m pregnant again!! How is this allowed it makes me so upset…“What world do we live in that these lies, and more lies are allowed to be put in the public domain. I’m sick to death of it now!!!”