I thought I'd been proposed to by my favourite singer. But was my suitor all he seemed? By Helen Foster, 51
As I walked up and down the supermarket aisles, popping things into my trolley, I heard a familiar tune and a big grin spread across my face.
‘It’s George!’ I squealed out loud, much to the bewilderment of other shoppers.
They stared, but I didn’t care.
George Ezra was my favourite singer, and whenever his music came on the radio I’d stop what I was doing to listen.
Now I soaked up the strains of his hit song Dance All Over Me.
There's nothing needs doing
Just keep on moving
And be here now with me…
It wasn’t just that I loved the music. It also meant a lot to me.
I’d discovered it eight years earlier while I was going through a divorce, and it had helped me through a tough time.
After that, I’d seen George in concert and had started following his public Facebook page. Sometimes I’d add comments, and it was nice to have a space online to speak about my hero.
In fact, I was such a frequent poster on the page, I’d earned a ‘Top Fan’ badge and a little diamond appeared next to my name, signalling I was George-crazy.
When I arrived home from the supermarket, I put my shopping bags on the kitchen counter and rushed straight to my computer to write a post about what had just happened.
Dance All Over Me started playing while I was in the supermarket today, I typed. Your music gives me so much joy. Thank you, George!
A couple of days later, I logged in again to check the page. And I noticed I had a friend request.
When I saw who it was from, my eyes widened.
George Ezra Official.
'Right, what's going on?'
I thought: George wants to me friends with me!
Heart thumping, I accepted the request and soon after, I received a message.
Hi, number one fan… it read.
I gasped in shock, and whizzed off a reply, thanking him for his music.
He wrote back: My manager wanted me to reach out to some of my fans, as my new album is coming out.
I wanted to scream with joy!
Then another message popped up.
It read: Don’t tell anybody we’re speaking though, I don’t want other fans getting jealous.
My lips are sealed, I wrote back.
Over the next two weeks, George and I exchanged up to 40 messages a day.
I had to pinch myself as we chatted about his music, but he wanted to know about me too.
Flattered, I explained I was divorced with three children.
Every time my phone buzzed, my heart skipped a beat and I’d sneak upstairs to chat to George away from the kids.
Then one day, the conversation took an unexpected turn.
George asked: Would you consider marrying me?
I almost spat out my coffee. I’d turned 50 and George wasn’t yet 30.
You’re way too young for me! I told him.
But he persisted, asking why I wouldn’t consider it.
I explained that we were from different worlds and I had to think of my family.
He replied: I’m fed up of dating younger girls who don’t know what love means, I want a woman.
'Why would someone do all this?'
I felt my cheeks redden. I’d gone on a few dates since my divorce, but nothing had worked out.
And now here was my celebrity idol, proposing marriage!
It felt like a fairy tale.
Although I’d put a pin in George’s fantasy about getting married, I couldn’t deny that my infatuation with him was growing.
So I decided to give him a call.
As the phone rang, I became excited about hearing his husky voice on the other end of the line.
But he declined the call. Then, he sent a message.
I’m busy in the studio, don’t call me during the day.
I’m sorry, I replied, hoping I hadn’t overstepped the mark.
Thankfully, we kept on messaging. But I was spending so much time online in my room, I began to worry my kids would twig something was up.
And sure enough, one evening, my 19-year-old daughter Jessie confronted me.
‘Right, what’s going on?’ she said. ‘I’ve seen you smiling at your phone. Are you dating someone?’
I couldn’t lie to my daughter, so I took a deep breath and came clean.
‘I’ve been speaking to George Ezra.’ I said.
Jessie’s mouth dropped open.
‘You what?’ she said.
Then she burst out laughing.
But when I didn’t smile back, she realised I wasn’t joking.
‘He wants to marry me,’ I said.
Jessie’s face was serious now.
‘Mum,’ she said, ‘I think you’re being catfished.’
She explained that sometimes people posed as celebrities online to scam unsuspecting strangers.
I listened to what she had to say, but I couldn’t quite shake the thought that I really was speaking to George.
Then a few hours later Jessie, came downstairs and announced she’d been in touch with the producers of a TV show called Catfish UK that exposed online scammers.
‘They want you to go on it,’ she said.
I paused and considered the offer.
‘I’ll do it,’ I said.
The way I saw it I had nothing to lose. If George was a scammer, I’d be better off knowing. But I hoped to prove Jessie wrong.
That evening, I did some research into dating scams. I discovered these swindlers usually started by building up trust with their victim, before extorting them for money.
My head was all over the place, so I sent George a message.
I’d love to meet you, I wrote_._
I sat with bated breath as George typed out a response.
I’d love to meet you too, but it’s difficult with the press…
I sighed.
But, he went on, there is a way we could make it work…
He explained that if I attended a meet and greet, we could see each other without arousing suspicion.
The only catch was it would cost me £5000.
My heart sank. I thought I’d found something special with George, but it seemed Jessie had been right.
I spoke to the Catfish UK production team, and they told me to play along with ‘George’ and get the details of the bank account he wanted the money paid into.
From there, they would try to identify him.
While they were hard at work, I decided to get away from it all and left my home in London for a break in Shropshire.
While I was there, I got an alarming phone call. It was from a loan company who told me they had approved a loan request for £26,000.
‘But I haven’t applied for a loan,’ I spluttered.
Panic set in, but the call handler reassured me they would sort it all out.
A few moments after I hung up, I received a call from an unknown number. It was a man, saying he was from the fraud squad at Scotland Yard.
He gave me details of a new bank account, and asked me to move the loan money into it, so it would be safe.
He gave me his telephone number, so I could confirm his identity.
When I rang the number, it went to a recorded message saying: ‘You’re through to Scotland Yard…’
But I smelled a rat.
I told the Catfish UK producers about the loan and the call, and they looked into that too.
A few months later, when presenters Oobah and Nella revealed the results of their research, I was floored.
They had traced the bank account to an area around Germany and Austria.
‘We can’t confirm who you were speaking to,’ they said. ‘But we can tell you, it wasn’t George Ezra.’
It was the news I’d been expecting, but it still felt like a blow.
But there was more.
The phone calls from the loan company and Scotland Yard had been a con too, probably connected to the George Ezra scam.
The phone number I’d been given was legitimate, but it was the old Scotland Yard number from years before.
‘I can’t believe it,’ I said. ‘Why would someone do all this?’
Oobah and Nella explained that the scammer had most probably targeted me because of the ‘Top Fan’ badge I’d earned on the Facebook page.
Jessie was angry that I’d been taken advantage of, but I wanted something positive to come from my experience.
So that’s why I’m telling my story. I want to warn other women. These scammers are becoming increasingly sophisticated and convincing.
Of course, this hasn’t changed how I feel about the real George in the slightest.
I certainly don’t blame him for what happened.
I’ll always be his number one fan.
•Helen’s surname has been changed.
Catfish UK is on MTV, Wednesdays at 10pm.