Ghanaian man jailed 40 months for scamming 68-year-old American widow

A 38-year-old Ghanaian man, Richard Yaw Dorpe, has been jailed for 40 months in the United States of America for cruelly scamming a 68-year-old widow of her valuables including a cash amount of $300, 000 and electronic gadgets. He was led to jail last Friday.

Mr Dorpe, who carried out the crime while in Ghana was extradited to the US to face the charges in January 2021 after the FBI made a request to the Government of Ghana. He pleaded guilty at the Court in the Eastern District of Virginia and was accordingly sentenced for romance scam.

Details of Scam

Between August 2016 and January 2017, Mr Dorpe joined an online dating site, OurTime, a site meant for persons in their fifties with the sole aim of duping unsuspecting users, since he was not qualified to join the site.

Mr Dorpe who is married with a child, professed love for the recent widow, claiming that he was a single 57-year old Caucasian, bald man based in Virginia Beach and a dealer in jewelry and gold.

He manipulated his victim into giving him over $300, 000 and valuables items such as a computer, clothes, a watch and jewellery. First, he lied that he had damaged his laptop. About $3,000 was immediately wired to him to replace the laptop with which he chatted with her. An Apple watch was added for his comfort.

A greedy Dorpe requested some money for the down payment for some gold he was purchasing. The widow sent him some $100, 000. And the demands continued unabated.

Somehow, the poor widow, who was still mourning the loss of her husband realised that she was the victim of a romance scam.

Through FBI investigations, the scammer was identified, indicted and Ghanaian authorities contacted. With their collaboration, Mr Dorpe was extradited to the US, prosecuted and jailed.