A mum who thought she was in a relationship with George Ezra was almost conned out of thousands of pounds. Helen appeared on This Morning and detailed her horrifying account of catfishing to hosts Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.
The 51-year-old appeared on the ITV talk show and revealed an innocent post on the musician's Facebook page led to a series of lies and betrayal with the impostor asking her for £5,000.
Taking to social media, the mother-of-three began complimenting the 29-year-old’s talent and ability to connect with listeners before she received a friend request from an account named George Ezra. The account then messaged Helen, and soon the pair were exchanged upwards of 40 messages a day and the imposter even proposed to her.
Helen, who has been divorced for eight years, was saved from sending over £5,000 after her daughter grew suspicious of the relationship and took the story to Catfish UK. Holly, 41, asked if it was "weird" she hadn’t spoken to ‘George’ on the phone, with Helen saying she once tried to call him but he blocked it, saying he was "in the studio all day".
She added that she didn't find it odd as the two lived very busy lives. The fraudster even warned her against telling anyone about their messaging "for press reasons". The George impersonator even wanted Helen to come off social media entirely and change her email address.
When it came to arranging a meeting, 'George' said to avoid suspicion it would have to be through an official channel like a meet and greet in a bid to extort money from Helen.
She said: "He said he wanted to meet me and that the only way to do it without arousing suspicion for the press was to do it through an official channel of a meet and greet, which would cost £5,000. But that included the flight and I told them I was in London so I didn’t need the flights. And they said, 'Oh, just £2,500 will do then.”’
Phil added: "And you said no to that because that’s expensive and then he – 'George' – then got quite upset."
Helen continued telling Phil and Holly that the rejection made the fraudster unhappy, as he pushed for her to make the trip before taking on multiple roles in his scam.
Soon after rejecting the meet and greet offer, Helen received a phone call from an alleged loan company at 6am advising that her loan application of £26,000 had been successful. As she had never applied for a loan, Helen flagged the issue and the alleged loan company said they'll report the incident, telling her she would get a call about it.
"The next thing I know, there's a policeman from New Scotland Yard calling me up, saying, 'We believe you've been part of a bigger scam that's serious organised crime,"' she revealed.
However, these alleged officials too were scammers, who asked her to move the money into an escrow account "so that while the prosecution is happening it would be safe". The resolution to Helen's story will air on Catfish on February 1
The mum told the This Morning hosts that, despite everything, she is still a George Ezra fan.
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