Scammers go through greater lengths to deceive victims
By Kate Northrop
Two Maryland brothers have been indicted after running a three-year scheme that involved false promises of lottery winnings and a supposedly exploding metal briefcase.
The United States Department of Justice announced on Wednesday that a federal grand jury charged brothers Dwayne and Wayne Henry, 32 and 34, respectively, for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with a scheme that offers a false promise of lottery winnings to victims.
It's the usual ploy that dupes victims into believing they've won a lottery prize or sweepstakes and are told to send payment in advance for taxes and other fees before they are entitled to receive their (nonexistent) winnings.
However, it's not every day that a metal briefcase supposedly containing millions in cash shows up on a victim's doorstep.
Between October 2020 and December 2023, The Henry's and their co-conspirators would contact targets by mail and over the phone to convince them that they won millions of dollars, but they would not receive the prize until they sent a required payment in advance. Victims would send them money via wire transfer, gift card, cash, and other payment methods, the United States Attorney's Office said in a press release.
Not only that, but the fraudsters would send physical packages and suitcases purportedly containing the victims' winnings to targets across the United States using a false address and a fictitious name. One such name was "Anthony Henry."
Wayne would receive numerous packages containing the victim's money addressed to this "Anthony Henry" character.
He had also opened two bank accounts to house cash deposits and facilitate peer-to-peer transfers. Dwayne and Wayne would also use the accounts to send money to and from each other.
Most of the ATM cash withdrawals from one of the bank accounts also took place outside the United States.
In one instance, the brothers sent a victim, anonymous "J.S.," a package that contained checks made payable to J.S. in the amount of $150 million, cell phones, and typewritten notes. One note explained that J.S. would have to contact a phone number "to get in touch... about paying you the 150 million dollars."
Another victim the District of Maryland names in their press release is "J.P.," who these scammers went through even greater lengths and lies to fool.
In early 2023, Wayne, Dwayne, and their team of co-conspirators contacted J.P. and tricked them into believing they had won $5.5 million in the lottery. J.P. received a metal briefcase, which the scammers said contained a partial payment of the winnings.
In order to receive a code to unlock the briefcase, J.P. had to send the fraudsters the "required taxes and fees," and that if they also tried to open the briefcase by force without first receiving the code, an exploding ink pack would destroy the money inside the briefcase.
The indictment says that the victims sent more than $3.5 million to the scammers and their conspirators as a result of the scheme.
If convicted, Wayne and Dwayne face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for mail fraud conspiracy. An initial appearance has not been scheduled.
i can't believe someone named their kids wayne and dwayne.
Let them rot in jail, and pay back all the money they stole back to the victim
This story would make a great movie.
On the flip side, this is an indication of how desperate to win some lottery players are.
They believe everything that comes their way to an extent of parting with their money.
It points at the intelligence of the lottery players - it's such characters that win the jackpot and get back to zero in a few years.
This is the hard truth 🤷🏾♂️
Classic story of American greed where the "victims" are never at fault. It's always someone's fault. Scams from this type to entire call centers in India being setup to scam greedy Americans will never stop. The fundamental greed and a belief that we are entitled to get rich quick will always get exploited by others.
Their sisters are Suzy and DSuzy, weird family.
They are not very smart, I think we'll hear more on these 2 dummies.
This story makes me want to unlock my land line which is set to only accept #'s we put in as OK. Nobody calls it, they use our cellphones instead. (Have it mainly for facsimile) Those calls from India were almost non stop mainly for Medicare junk. I'd ask them 'I'm only 39 so why are you calling?' Point on my rant not once in all the years did a lottery scammer call, not that it wouldn't have been unwelcome.
The gullibility of these folks astounds me. Yeah, they got my late Dad too. With his Alzheimer's he wouldn't listen to his four kids.
Not so much if you remember The Bob Newhart Show circa 1982.
Bob's neighbor Larry had 2 brothers named Darryl.
Larry would often say, "I'm Larry, this is my brother, Darryl, and this is my other brother, Darryl
I think the sister's names were Suzy and Swuzy.
Those rhyme a little better.
they probably named the sisters wayne and dwayne too.
Not surprised by this. Maryland is full of scammers.
Dwayne and Wayne's parents were a fan of the TV show A Different World which was on air from 1987 to 1993. One of the characters on the show was named Dwayne Wayne. Unfortunately these two guys lives did NOT turn out like the TV character.
No, this family are fans of the TV show A Different World which aired 1987 to 1993. One of the characters on the show is named Dwayne Wayne. On the show Dwayne Wayne was an engineer and math genius who became a professor at his former college. Then moved to Japan to take an engineering job. Unfortunately Dwayne and Wayne DID NOT turn out like their TV namesakes.
Apparently no one in this comment section has ever heard of the TV show A Different World which aired 1987 to 1993. It still comes on in reruns. There is a charter on the show named Dwayne Wayne who was a math and engineer major in college. He went on to become an engineer in Japan. The show was based on a fictional HBCU a spin off of the Cosby Show which started Lisa Bonet who was the star of A Different World. Clearly Dwayne and Wayne's parents were fans of the TV show, to have named their sons after Dwayne Wayne. Unfortunately for them and others their lives did not mirror the TV character
I think we all have seen that show but that was the character name for one person, not two. We really have no evidence as to the reasoning behind the names. It could be family names.
And Bill Cosby is not really someone worth mentioning. I guess some of us are familiar with his convictions.
doesn't really matter why they are named wayne and dwayne. that fact that they aren't even twins makes it funnier.
You can only assume everyone has seen A Different World because you don't know that. Like I said, from these comments, sounds like no one has even seen the show. I only mentioned the former show because it was a spin off of the latter . Yes I do know that Dwayne Wayne is one character and not two but that does not matter. When it comes to parents, they DO name their children after their favorite TV character.
Living Single - Khadijah
Game of Thrones- Daenerys and Arya
Scandal- Olivia
Gossip Girls- Milo
Modern Family - Luke
Mr. Robot- Elliot
Pretty Little Liars- Ezra
Sons of Anarchy- Jackson
I think somebody watches wayyyyyy too much TV.
Who is going to tell the poster that the other TV show names she cited were not invented by those tv shows? Luke? Ezra???? Come on now.
i agree. everyone knows the name luke originated with the movie cool hand luke.
Lol
lol
You are way too hung up on this.
I got a call once claiming to have won some kind of Internet Lottery. The phone number was from Jamaica. That is the only time I ever got a lottery call.
I usually get the tech support, DirecTV, and car warranty scammers. The scammers are despicable in what they do and them and their accomplices all need to be taken down.
From the story, it looks like part of what these guys were doing was being money mules, the ones who collect the money for the scammer and launder it back to them overseas.
At least they've been caught and hopefully they will pay for what they did. Even if they do, there will always be someone to replace them.
The phone scam stuff is even worse than it seems on the surface. The people making the calls or texts are often forced to do so in scam labor camps. Normal non-criminal people in various parts of Asia, mainly China, get lured by fake job ads for tech work. Then they end up in the jungle in Cambodia or Myanmar forced to sit on the phone and try to scam people all day. NY Times did several articles about it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/28/world/asia/cambodia-cyber-scam.html
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/12/17/world/asia/myanmar-cyber-scam.html
Contrary to popular opinion, education does NOT equate to intelligence.
There are many educated fools in the world.
I've seen scammers on the streets from New York to Los Angeles.
That's the way of the world.
When I encountered the Hillside Strangler in Hollywood, I thought he was a scammer about to try to scam me.
It was so bad that for a while, I found it hard to trust anyone.
Remember Autumn Jackson, the young woman who in 1997, wrongfully accused Bill Cosby of being her biological father?
If she had kept her mouth shut, her mother could have accused Bill Cosby too.
you win the jello pudding cup award for weirdest bill cosby take.
Since Cosby's other former mistresses were accusing him, her mother could have jumped on the bandwagon, but telling her daughter that Cosby was her father prevented her from joining the others in the big money grab.
It's hard to believe that people didn't know that rich and famous men have lots of groupies, and many famous men from Alice Cooper to Brad Pitt are being accused.