A woman has told how she was catfished by a man pretending to be Gary Barlow - who turned out to be a scammer after money.
Janet Smith, 62, genuinely believed she was talking to the Take That hitmaker for about a week, after she added him as a friend on Facebook. The fake Gary bombarded her with compliments and messages and said he had "split up" with his partner. But she grew suspicious and eventually convinced the scammer to reveal their true identity. The cheat said he was actually a 24-year-old man from Nigeria and was sorry for lying to her - but told Janet he really did love her and asked for cash.
Pizza restaurant worker Janet, from Colchester, Essex, is now speaking out to raise awareness of online scammers - and warn older people to be alert. She said: "It's so sad because he's been saying to me 'I love you'." I said 'I am 62 - you're 24'. I'm saddened because he is poor and he's got no money. For the last week, he's been constantly texting me, asking me where I am. He was texting me from 9am to 3am."
"Elderly people are going to be adding these 'celebrities'. They're going to be conning these old people. I understand that they are poor and they have to get money for their family, but people might lose a lot of money over this. It's also giving celebrities a bad name."
Initially, Janet believed that she had added the real Gary Barlow on Facebook on 26th March. "I was talking to him all week and he was saying to me, 'I'm busy, I've got a lot of schedules'," she said.
"He was kind. He was nice. He was really lovely, saying: 'Good morning. Good evening, I've seen your videos' because I love to dance. The words were really posh - 'I'm in a meeting now' and 'I'm practicing for a concert. And it was going well. He just kept saying 'I'm Gary Barlow, I've split up."
Janet began to smell a rat after a few days and realised the man she was chatting with couldn't possibly be the Take That star. "Gary Barlow would not talk to somebody like me, he's too famous," she said. "I just thought, this isn't Gary Barlow."
"I kept saying, 'you're not the real one! ' And he was saying, 'You're lovely, you're kind, yes, I am Gary Barlow.'". She finally coaxed the truth out of the imposter by offering her WhatsApp number in return for his real identity.
She added: "He sent me a message to say, 'look I'm really sorry: I'm going to tell you the truth and he told me his name. He is very poor. He's on WhatsApp and he's texting me saying, 'I'm sorry, I've done fraud but we come from a poor family. I do admire Gary Barlow, I like singing and I like his songs.'". The con artist eventually declared his affection for her.
Janet said: "He said, 'I thought you would be able to help me and my family but it's sad that you can't'. I asked him what he meant by that and he said 'some money to get some food in Nigeria.'".
But when asked how much he needed, he responded: "I don't have the power to tell you how much you will give me, only you know in your heart." She claimed she told him she wasn't "in a position to do that", but admitted that the whole ordeal has now left her feeling "really guilty".
The pensioner decided to share her story as a cautionary tale to help others steer clear of such scammers. "There were 20 Tom Joneses" she added. "And Michael Barrymore has been popping up. When they send a message, it's similar. I think a lot of these foreign people are doing this because their countries are poor, but people think they're real celebrities."