An 81-year-old woman from Hampshire has been left suicidal after falling victim to a scam where a conman posed as Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Valerie Horwood was tricked into buying hundreds of Apple gift cards for the scammer, believing she would receive her money back plus more.
Have YOU been conned by a fake celebrity? Email [email protected] terminally ill pensioner was left feeling suicidal after a conman posed as Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore and scammed her out of £140,000.
The scam victim has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer and no longer has any money to live out her last wishes or gift to her children. 'She was pulled into a false sense of security thinking she had this really good friend who was a famous person.'Her world just completely fell apart. She couldn't comprehend what had happened.
She added: 'It just made me so cross because if I had known about this app then I would have seen this in June or July last year and I could have nipped this in the bud.'So many people just don't know about this gift card scam. After deleting the app, Valerie began receiving threatening messages on WhatsApp from the scammer asking for more money, which overwhelmed her and she attempted to take her life.Debbie has visited all the supermarkets where Valerie was purchasing the cards to warn them, and has commended supermarket Tesco for refunding the £12,500 spent in their stores.
A former colleague and friend of Debbie's who was moved by the story decided to set up a JustGiving page to try and recover some of the lost savings. 'The family went through so much and Valerie was really mentally affected by what happened. The money that she wanted to leave for her children or use for herself in old age is gone.
'We've issued additional guidance and controls within our shops and are collaboratively working with others within the industry to see what additional safeguards can be put in place to protect vulnerable customers from gift card fraud.' 'Catfishing' originated as a term for the process of luring people into false relationships, however, it has also come to encompass people giving out false information about themselves more generally.
Scamming Elderly Victims Deep Purple Ritchie Blackmore Fraud
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