Lottery scams use real business names to appear legitimate
Vintner Charles Sawyer knew something was wrong when a stranger called wanting to know why he'd been sent a $2,400 check.
As it turned out, someone had used the good name of Sawyer Cellars in a scam that apparently took in scores of people.
It was frighteningly well done, Sawyer said.
The ruse appears to have been among a number of mail or telemarketing frauds promising people they've won big. To collect, all they need to do is pay a relatively small fee, the story goes.
In this ca ...
Mar 13, 2006, 6:29 am - - Lottery News forum
California man turns in lottery scammers
When Daniel Larsen of Pleasanton got a letter from a Canadian company called Saatchi Saatchi, he thought he had hit the jackpot literally.
Enclosed in the envelope was a check for $4,900 and a letter saying this was just the start of a much bigger payday.
It said I had won $250,000, said the 45-year-old painting contractor. And the ($4,900) check looked so real, I really thought I may have for a minute.
However, as Larsen continued to read the letter, the company explained how h ...
Feb 28, 2006, 1:32 pm - - Lottery News forum
Lottery scams target big-spending Australians
Overseas lottery scams are flourishing and Australians are being sucked in, many of them losing thousands of dollars, the Australian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) says.
Lottery scams, in which people are asked to pay a fee and give personal information to access winnings from a bogus lottery, are one of the most reported confidence tricks nationwide.
ACFT chair Louise Sylvan said poorer consumers were attracted to the scams, which had increased at an alarming rate in recent years.
Th ...
Feb 14, 2006, 12:24 pm - - Lottery News forum
Iowa couple arrested in lottery fraud
A Waverly, Iowa, couple is facing criminal charges for allegedly cashing counterfeit lottery tickets.
Lottery officials allege Scott and Jennifer Brandhorst redeemed the forged TouchPlay tickets at a Hy-Vee store in Cedar Rapids, one for $300 and another for $325. Cedar Rapids police reportedly matched the couple with a surveillance video.
Investigators arrested the pair as they were leaving their home at 1868 Dakota Ave. in Waverly on Monday. They were taken to the Linn County Jail.
T ...
Feb 8, 2006, 3:53 pm - - Lottery News forum
Lottery Post member turns up the heat on the Hoosier Lottery
Is the Indiana Lottery vulnerable to inside tampering?
By Kevin Leininger
Fort Wayne News Sentinel
You'd think Jim Grimes would be happy.
After all, the retired Noble County engineer, whose concerns about the integrity of the Hoosier Lottery were the subject of a column in June 2004, helped spark an investigation that led to three indictments in an alleged million-dollar scam. But, if anything, Grimes is even more frustrated than he was when we first talked nearly two years ago - even ...
Jan 31, 2006, 6:06 pm - - Lottery News forum
Penn. woman Loses $20,000 In Jamaican Lottery Scam
A Bethlehem woman was defrauded of nearly $20,000 throughout January after she was led to believe she'd won the Jamaican lottery.Sue Turnback, 68, said a woman calling herself Carrinne Campbell called her Jan. 4, police said. Campbell said Turnback won $2.2 million in the Jamaican lottery but had to mail $1,000 to Jamaica to process the winnings. Turnback sent the money in an international money order the same day. Turnback received another call later from a man calling himself Everett Montaque, ...
Jan 31, 2006, 7:03 am - - Lottery News forum
Pennsylvania man loses thousands to lottery scam
Gary Young said he should have known better, but the promise of thousands of dollars clouded his judgment a bit.Now, the North Sewickley Township man is out more than $3,500, the victim of the latest scam to target the region.In a letter dated Dec. 15, from the purported Transmerica POS Prize Pool Lottery, Young was told that he had until Dec. 30 to claim a $50,000 prize. To claim the prize, he had to take a Transmerica check, worth $3,950, and cash it, so that he could wire money to the lottery ...
Jan 30, 2006, 7:30 am - - Lottery News forum
California man loses $9,000 in lottery scam
Sunnyvale police are looking for two men suspected of concocting a lottery scam to steal thousands of dollars from a Sunnyvale man.According to police, the pair approached a 44-year-old man in the parking lot of the Costco at 150 Lawrence Station Road around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 10. They told the man they had a winning lottery ticket but needed to put forward a deposit in order to claim their winnings, Lt. Marty Dale said.The suspects told the man they couldn't pay the deposit because they were no ...
Jan 12, 2006, 8:00 am - - Lottery News forum
Elders fleeced in lottery scam
Several Massachusetts seniors have paid a hefty price after falling prey to a Canadian lottery scam, Danvers Police announced this week, and they've issued a public warning. Danvers has had four incidents this year, with victim's losing an average of $8,000, Sgt. Robert Bettencourt said.Recouping the losses will be tricky, police said, since the suspects based in Canada are using false identities to claim the cash and moving on to other victims assuming a new identity.The elderly residents were ...
Dec 9, 2005, 10:45 am - - Lottery News forum
Californians targeted by Spanish lottery scam
Imagine receiving a letter in the mail that you're the big winner of a lottery in Spain. If it sounds too good to be true, that's probably because it is.This scam is known as the El Gordo lottery, meaning fat one . But the only ones fattening their wallets are the criminals behind it.It's a letter that seemed too good to be true to News 8's assistant news director Dean Elwood. $600,000 ... who wouldn't want that, he said.And according to this notice claiming to be from the El Gordo Spani ...
Nov 30, 2005, 1:21 pm - - Lottery News forum
