AceShowbiz - A scammer pretending to be Rolling Stones star Ronnie Wood tried to con a woman out of thousands after convincing her he wanted to be her boyfriend.

Stones fan Mary Downey tells Page Six the drama started when she left a birthday message for the guitarist on his official Facebook page and was then asked to send him a private note.

The correspondence came from an impersonator who had accessed Wood's account, but Mary thought it might just be from Ronnie, so she played along.

"Being in showbusiness, I talk to celebrities a lot, and thought nothing of it," the casting director tells the outlet, explaining she and the scammer exchanged messages and he asked her to video chat, but wouldn't connect. "He was very clever," she adds.

The correspondence was romantic but never sexual, she explains, adding, "It was (him saying) how much he loves me."

Eventually the fake Ronnie told Mary he was getting divorced and moving to Miami, Florida, and he needed her to loan him $8,400 (£6,400) to cover real estate fees, stating he was afraid if he went through a bank someone would tip off the press about his split.

Downey grew suspicious and says, "I knew it was a con. At night it scared me because I didn't know if there was someone outside my house. It really began to affect my health."

Mary turned to the FBI for help after her Instagram account was also hacked, but they told her there was nothing they could do because no money had been exchanged.

So she went to the press "to bring attention to this epidemic of fraudulent activity sweeping the world."