'I thought I was speaking to Gary Barlow - the truth left me feeling really guilty'

A woman has told how she was catfished by a man pretending to be Gary Barlow.

Janet Smith, 62, 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 bombarded her with compliments and messages and said he had "split up".

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.

Janet is speaking out to raise awareness of online scammers - and warn older people to be alert. Initially, she believed she had added the real Gary Barlow on Facebook on March 26.

"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."

After a few days, Janet started to get suspicious and realised the man she was speaking to couldn't be the real Barlow.

"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.'"

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 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