Thought she was writing to a rock star: a pensioner gave a stranger £140,000 (3 photos)

Valerie Horwood thought she was texting a 70s rock star until her family saw how much she had paid him. The stranger convinced her that their conversations had to be kept secret because of his status.





Valerie Horwood, 81, from Fleet, England, received messages on Facebook from a man claiming to be Deep Purple rock star Ritchie Blackmore, who she once went to school with.

A pensioner with cancer was tricked into buying hundreds of Apple gift cards for a stranger who convinced her that their conversations had to be kept secret because of his celebrity status.

"She showed me her banking app and everything was gone. Her world just completely collapsed. She couldn't understand what had happened. I went through the most horrific emotional rollercoaster," said her daughter Debbie, 52.

The family found out about the problem after Valerie asked a friend to lend her £2,000 to pay her bills because she had no money left.



Debbie noted that she noticed her mother's strange behavior back in June 2023 and looked through her phone, but did not see anything suspicious because the scammer communicated with the pensioner through an app called Signal, which she had never heard of.

"I feel so bad because if I had known about this app, I would have seen it in June and July last year and nipped it in the bud. We were all in shock. My mum is not a stupid old lady. She is very sociable and very considerate. She was probably very lonely. She enjoyed their conversations. The fact that she was drawn into this is very sad. I never thought my mum could be so vulnerable," Debbie added.



After deleting the Signal app, Valerie began receiving threatening WhatsApp messages from a scammer demanding more money, which became too much for her and led to her attempting suicide.

Debbie also thanked Tesco for refunding £12,500 she spent in their stores. The victim's family is calling on other supermarkets to do the same and help Valerie get her money back. The pensioner has since moved in with her daughter, who is looking after her.