Woman conned out of over $20,000 by man pretending to be Chris Hemsworth

A Russian woman has told of a scam that left her over $20,000 out of pocket, after she thought Australian actor Chris Hemsworth was wooing her on social media.

A man posing as the hunky actor approached the 42-year-old on Twitter, sending her a range of messages over two months, starting with: "Hey, I am Chris Hemsworth, I am a famous actor from Australia, I live in California. You are so pretty, can we chat?"

While she wasn't a fan as such of the actor, she liked what she saw and did apparently Google the Thor star. Despite discovering he is a married father-of-three, she didn't question it as the messages came at a point when the mother-of-two's marriage was in crisis.

"I thought, what if he was in the same situation as I was, that on the face of it we were both married and at the same time very lonely," the woman told a local newspaper, according to The Serbian Times.

The pair's messages made the naive woman hopeful of a fling with the Hollywood star... hopeful enough to take out a loan and transfer a large sum of money to the man so he could come and visit her.

Police in Serbia are now investigating the matter and are looking at a criminal case after the online fraudster's made off with $20,100 (980,000 roubles).

The woman transferred the money after a second person, alleging to be Hemsworth's lawyer contacted the woman, saying the supposed actor wanted to come and see her in Serbia but was tight on money, so if she transferred it to him, he'd pay her back.

"He needed money to pay for visa, insurance and parking for his private jet in Siberia," a local Irkutsk city police source told the publication.

"The lawyer asked her to transfer money and sent her Chris’s driving license as a guarantee of a payback."

However, it seems the woman failed to Google that one - with the official Vic Roads licence looking very different. Also the fake appears to contain a red carpet photo of the actor.

Other holes in the story include Hemsworth living in LA, with the 35-year-old moving with his wife Elsa Pataky and their three children to Byron Bay in 2014.

Also, Hemworth is unlikely to be short on the cash, having been named by Forbes magazine as one of the World's Highest Paid Actors, coming in at 11 on the list, earning $43.59 million (US $31.5m) in 2017.

As a result of the scam, women are being warned by Serbian police not to hand over money to people they meet online.

"We urge everyone not to stay in contact with strangers and not to send anything to people you are not familiar with," they said in a statement.