A report from The Sun reveals that an elderly woman with a terminal illness was scammed out of £140,000 by someone impersonating former DEEP PURPLE guitarist Ritchie Blackmore.
Valerie Horwood, 81, received a Facebook message from the fraudster pretending to be Blackmore. The scammer convinced her to purchase hundreds of Apple gift cards, promising she would be reimbursed with additional benefits.
The con artist urged Valerie to keep their exchanges secret due to his alleged celebrity status. However, her family became suspicious when she asked to borrow £2,000 to cover her bills. The ordeal left Valerie so devastated that she attempted suicide.
Her daughter Debbie, 58, was shocked to discover that all of her mother’s money had been drained from her bank account.
Debbie said: “She was pulled into a false sense of security thinking she had this really good friend who was a famous person. She really did not believe us when we told her that it was a scam. Her world just completely fell apart. She couldn’t comprehend what had happened.
“It is a hard thing to take on that you have just given all of your money away to a scammer. It is a very crafty scam. I have been through the worst emotional rollercoaster with it all.”
Reeder, the visionary behind Metal Addicts, has transformed his lifelong passion for metal into a thriving online community for metal aficionados. As a fervent devotee of black metal, Reeder is captivated by its dark, atmospheric, and often unorthodox soundscapes.