A fraudster claiming to be actor Jason Statham conned a bereaved woman out of hundreds of thousands of pounds by declaring his love for her.

The victim from the northwest of England, who did not want to be named, said she was targeted online at a time when she was vulnerable following the deaths of her mother and fiancé.

She said she was first contacted by someone posing as the Hollywood actor when she was on a Facebook page dedicated to the Fast & Furious star.

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester on Monday, the woman said: “I’m quite a strong person but obviously certain things get to you and you let your guard down.”

She added: “I thought: ‘Oh, that’s nice of him, talking to his fans.’ I might have been star-struck then, I don’t know.”

The conman then convinced the victim to use encrypted messaging service WhatsApp and bombarded her with hundreds of messages over the coming months before claiming a film payment was delayed.

The woman then made a string of payments to the fraudster totalling several hundred thousand pounds.

Although she declined to give an exact figure, the victim told the BBC it was a “substantial amount” which would have “made a difference to my life and my family”.

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She later contacted Greater Manchester Police, whose Economic Crime Unit investigated.

The force receives about 1,000 reports of fraud every month.

However according to Detective Constable Craig Moylon, the number of people who report the crime are only about five to 10 per cent of the actual number of fraud victims.

He described fraud as “an epidemic”, telling the BBC: “We’ve got big problems that we’re trying to tackle.”

After investigating, police were unable to prosecute anyone as the person who conned the bereaved woman was believed to have been operating from abroad.

The Independent has contacted Greater Manchester Police for comment.

Source: independent.co.uk