According to KDKA Radio and Butler Radio, a 64-year-old man from East Butler, Pennsylvania, was scammed out of more than $42,000 by someone impersonating professional wrestler Rhea Ripley. Pennsylvania State Police began investigating the case in the spring. The victim, whose name has not been released, was deceived into sending more than $42,000 in online payments to the impersonator. State police reported that the man has since refused to cooperate with their investigation.
There are conflicting reports regarding the amount lost, with some sources claiming the man was scammed out of $427,000. This figure appears to have originated from a typo in a WPXI report, which noted that the man “lost tens of thousands” of dollars and mentioned “over $40K” in the headline, but quoted the $427,000 figure in the article. Other reports consistently cite the loss at approximately $42,700.
This incident is not isolated; it follows a similar case from November 2024, in which a 78-year-old man was scammed out of more than $1 million by someone pretending to be wrestler Alexa Bliss online.