'I thought I was speaking to the real Gary Barlow on Facebook until I asked him a question'

A woman has shared her shocking experience of being catfished by a man pretending to be Gary Barlow, who turned out to be a scammer after money.

Janet Smith was under the impression that she was communicating with the famous singer, originally from Frodsham, for about a week after accepting his friend request on Facebook. The 62-year-old was showered with compliments and messages, claiming the Take That frontman had "split up" with his wife and wanted to be with her.

However, Janet became suspicious and eventually persuaded the fraudster to disclose their true identity. The scammer confessed to being a 24-year-old man from Nigeria, apologised for deceiving her, but insisted he genuinely loved her and requested money.

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Pizza restaurant employee Janet, from Colchester in Essex, is now speaking out to raise awareness about online scams and caution older individuals to stay vigilant. She said that the scammer had been "constantly texting" from 9am to 3am.

She said: "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 March 26. She said that the scammer was "kind, nice and really lovely" in his messages and would claim he was "in a meeting" or "practicing for a concert" when he couldn't reply straight away.

But, Janet began to smell a rat after a few days and realised the man she was speaking to couldn't be the Take That star. She said: "Gary Barlow would not talk to somebody like me, he's too famous.

"I kept saying, 'you're not the real one!' and he was saying, 'You're lovely, you're kind, yes, I am Gary Barlow'".

Eventually, Janet managed to persuade the scammer to reveal the truth by telling him he could have her WhatsApp number in exchange for his true identity.

She said: "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 man eventually confessed his love for her, but still begged Janet for cash. She said that the conman asked for "some money to get some food in Nigeria". It seemed to become very sinister when Janet quizzed the scammer for how much he wanted and he replied: "I don't have the power to tell you how much you will give me, only you know in your heart."

Janet admits the ordeal had her burdened with guilt. Now, she's speaking out to raise awareness and prevent others from falling prey to similar scams.

She said: "There were 20 Tom Jones' and Michael Barrymore has been coming up. When they send a message, it’s similar.

“I think a lot of people are doing this because they live in poor countries, but people think they’re real celebrities."

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