Nigerian officials: Australian woman duped out of $50K in Internet love scam by ‘Mr. Right’

Woman duped out of $50K in Internet love scam

ABUJA, Nigeria — Authorities say an Australian woman who fell in love online was duped out of nearly $50,000 by a Nigerian man who said he was her “Mr. Right.”

Lawal Adewale Nurudeen was sentenced to 19 years in prison and ordered to repay the woman. On Monday, Nigeria’s anti-graft agency said about $9,300 that had been gathered so far would be returned.

Nigerian authorities say the 28-year-old man presented himself as a Briton working in Nigeria for a multinational company. Nurudeen told the 56-year-old woman he was a widower whose wife and only child had died in a car accident.

Authorities say a few weeks later he called the woman, introducing himself as a doctor and saying her “fiance” needed money for medical treatment following an accident.