'Mr. Right' grifts widow's $50K in Web scam

updated 11:56 a.m. ET Nov. 24, 2009

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.

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