Janet Smith wants to warn others about catfishing after the Gary Barlow incident (Credit: PAwire/SWNS)
A woman was ‘catfished’ by a scam artist pretending to be Take That’s Gary Barlow.
A 62-year-old Janet Smith was targeted by a greedy scammer who was after her money.
The pizza restaurant worker genuinely believed she was talking to the Take That singer for about a week after she added him as a friend on Facebook.
The fake Gary showered her with compliments and messages, telling her he had ‘split up’, which Janet thought meant from his wife.
She eventually got suspicious and convinced the cheeky catfish to reveal their true identity.
Gary turned out to be a 24-year-old man from Nigeria.
He said he was sorry for lying to her and that he really did love her before asking for money.
Now Smith, from Colchester in Essex, has revealed what happened to her in bid to warn others of online scammers.
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.’
During their chats, the fake Gary was ‘really lovely’ and ‘kind’ and wished her good morning and evening, Smith said.
She continued: ‘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..’
Eventually Janet got suspicious, questioning whether he would ‘talk to somebody like me, he’s too famous’, she said.
Smith 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 managed to persuade the scammer to reveal who he was by telling him he could have her WhatsApp number in exchange for his true identity.
She described the moment of truth: ‘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.’
The only thing the two had in common was admiration of Gary Barlow.
She continued: ‘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 catfish eventually confessed his love for her.
Smith explained: ‘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.”
When Janet asked how much he needed, his response was: ‘I don’t have the power to tell you how much you will give me, only you know in your heart.’
She told him she was ‘not in a position to do that’, but says that the whole experience has left her feeling ‘really guilty.’
She said: ‘There were 20 Tom Jones [on Facebook].’
‘And Michael Barrymore has been coming 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.’
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