SecureWorld News

79-Year-Old Account Jailed for Falling for Nigerian Email Scam

Written by SecureWorld News Team | Thu | Oct 27, 2016 | 7:00 AM Z

Brian Ridpath fell in love and wound up in jail. 

Sophos Explains:

You don’t always go looking for love. Sometimes it just finds you.

Other times, it reaches out from the internet, sends you X-rated photos and a sob story, and then takes you to the cleaners.

That’s what happened recently to a 79-year-old accountant who fell for a scammer so hard that he bilked a friend out of £151,000 ($184,000) to come to the rescue of his sweetie pie.

He would have sent her proceeds from the sale of his home, too, if a court injunction hadn’t stopped him.

According to Kent Police, Brian Ridpath, of Willesborough, Kent, England, became both the victim of and, apparently, a pawn in a classic Nigerian email scam.