A heartless conman duped a vulnerable pensioner out of thousands of pounds claiming he needed cash to buy cancer drugs.
Dean Badder, 52, made up a string of lies to get his hands on the man's money which he then splurged on a static caravan.
He also told the 76-year-old that he needed to make security payments because he was in trouble with gangs.
Overall the elderly man handed over almost £50,000 to Badder and nearly lost his home through trying to help him, Nottinghamshire Live reports.
He was sentenced to four years and nine months at Nottingham Crown Court on Wednesday.
Badder's cruel lies began when he set up a fake Facebook identity pretending to a be a young man in his 20s called Eddie.
The fraudster, from Gamston Nottinghamshire, used a stolen picture to complete his profile and struck up a close bond with the pensioner online.
Prosecutor Andy Peet said: "Messages were sent via Facebook that Eddie was repeatedly in trouble with the law, repeatedly in trouble with gangs and, in order to assert his safety, payments had to be made in the thousands."
Believing Eddie was in need and in danger, the pensioner withdrew hundreds of thousands of points in cash and gave them to the defendant who kept them for himself.
This spanned 18 months to two years and amassed Badder £27,730.
Mr Peet told how the victim still believed Eddie was a real person until Badder was charged, showing the extent to which he was duped.
The cash was spent on the caravan, which Mr Peet said was an indication that "this was entirely motivated by greed".
Badder, acting as himself, then claimed that he had cancer which was the second offence of fraud he pleaded guilty to.
He said there were no drugs on the NHS to treat his type of cancer and the victim agreed to pay weekly amounts, which added up to £9,420, to supposedly buy treatment.
Mr Peet said that the final charge of blackmail was the meanest of all the offences where Badder sent the victim a picture of a penis.
He then asserted that, without payment of £600, he would be in trouble because the penis was of someone who was underage.
Police then became involved.
The victim lives alone, spends modestly and owns his home through sheer hard work, the court heard.
Financially, the offence had a massive impact on him and he was worried he might lose his house.
Shannon English, defending, said that father-of-three Badder is a hard-working family man.
"Unfortunately, on this occasion, he made a huge mistake," she said.
"He knows custody is inevitable".
Upon sentencing, Judge Rupert Mayo referred to Badder as a "puppet master" acting as Eddie and asking for money for various emergencies such as being trapped by gangs and being pursued by police.
The judge added: "He had never met 'Eddie.' He did not exist.
"There is no doubt Mr Badder that what you did to the victim was catastrophic and will have a lasting affect on him and was wicked - as the calculation you made would be he would fall for it and pay you the money".
The blackmail offence, he said, was disturbing and vile – a crime against someone he had already extracted some money, and to use the street language he was, "kicking a man when he is down".
