A Rochester, New York, man has been accused of running a lottery con game in which three senior citizens were persuaded to send him a total of $138,000 in order to claim their mega-bucks winnings.

The winnings were fictitious but the crime was real, federal prosecutors say: Roydel Nicholson was charged Friday with mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering in connection with the scheme, which he allegedly ran from his apartment on Van Auker Street.

A criminal complaint unsealed in U.S. District Court Friday accused the 62-year-old Nicholson of taking advantage of two elderly men in California and a senior woman in Detroit beginning in 2011 and 2012.

Nicholson or associates called each of the three victims and told them they had won millions of dollars in a lottery. To obtain their winnings, which in one case also included a BMW automobile, the victims were told to send money to Nicholson in Rochester. The funds ostensibly were to cover taxes, transportation costs and various fees.

It's the same type of scheme featured in unsolicited emails that jam many people's in-boxes, though the Federal Trade Commission warns they can be attempted via telephone as well and often target elderly people, who can be more trusting.

The complaint doesn't specify how the three alleged victims in Nicholson's case were first contacted, though it does describe repeated phone calls to them.

A 74-year-old man in Cottonwood, California, identified as R.B., who reportedly had been swindled in lottery scams before, was persuaded to send Nicholson an $8,000 check, the complaint states. A woman in Detroit, P.B., age 77, sent him three payments totaling $2,099.

And H.J., a 94-year-old man living in Paradise, California, wound up sending cash or cashier's checks to Nicholson's apartment 17 different times. The payments added up to at least $128,294, according to the complaint.

After being asked for another $14,446 in April 2014, H.J. asked for his money back. Someone identified by federal investigators as Nicholson responded in an August letter saying he couldn't refund the money because someone else had been handling the transactions.

Most of the proceeds of the alleged con were wired by Nicholson to various parties in Jamaica, according the complaint. Nicholson, who authorities said was a native of Jamaica and a legal permanent resident of this country, kept about $13,800 for himself.

The case was investigation by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.