Pensioner conned out of hundreds in Walking Dead meet and greet scam

Ms Ennis, from Glasgow, Scotland, said she was contacted by a scammer claiming to be Andrew Lincoln, who initially asked her to spend thousands of pounds on a meeting

A pensioner was led to believe she was speaking with a Walking Dead star and conned out of hundreds of pounds in a sophisticated meet-and-greet scam.

Shelagh Ennis, 68, was catfished by a Facebook user claiming to be Andrew Lincoln, the lead actor in the Walking Dead television series. The account targeted the pensioner while Lincoln - who Ms Ennis described as "one of my heroes" - was filming on location in Glasgow's Celtic Park, with the catfish demanding she pay out £500 to various Paypal accounts.

The account, which boasted 2,500 followers, started speaking with Ms Ennis over Facebook Messenger after she initiated contact. She commented on a picture of the Love Actually star filming in Scotland, and said she would "dearly love to meet", sparking an exchange during which the account holder tried to make her pay thousands for a private meet-and-greet.

The pensioner, from Parkhead in Glasgow's east end, told the Daily Record that she asked the account whether Mr Lincoln would be attending an upcoming Celtics game against Falkirk. The catfish told her he did not have the space on his schedule, but that his management could organise a "private meet and greet".

They suggested she book via email and quoted Ms Ennis £1,154, a fee she said she "couldn’t possibly afford". Ms Ennis thanked the person claiming to be Lincoln for speaking to her, and they responded with a new offer. The scammer said that, since she was "so polite all through" he would "talk" to the management firm and have them offer a discount.

The scammer wrote: "I always try to not make things too difficult for my genuine fans because I won’t be here without you all." Ms Ennis said that, while her partner, James Shields, 71, thought the offer was "quite strange", she did not, adding: "James did think that was quite strange, but I didn’t, because I wanted to meet this guy, he’s one of my heroes from The Walking Dead.

“Then they asked for another £200 for the meet-up, saying the first £200 was for his entourage. I paid that as well." Sheelagh ended up sending the scammer a grand total of £500 over a few weeks, including £100 for a "fan card" she said was used to prove she was "genuine".

Ms Ennis eventually caught on and tried to stop a payment going out to one of the PayPal accounts to which she was asked to send money. But the scammer asked her why she had attempted to stop the transaction, and the account has since disappeared from Facebook.

She has since started receiving messages from a new account, telling the Record: "Yesterday, I got another message from another account claiming to be Andrew Lincoln, and it said 'Forget about the past, worry about the future; the money you have lost has gone to an impersonator'.”