The first caller told Norman Breidenbaugh he had won $2.5 million in a foreign sweepstakes, but there was a catch: Breidenbaugh needed to send $2,000 in fees before collecting his earnings.
Other calls followed, promising Breidenbaugh millions more — even a Mercedes Benz — as long as he would wire some money to pay taxes on the prizes. He obliged, sending more than $400,000 over about six years, hoping the promised winnings would cover his wife's medical expenses.
The prizes never came. The people calling Breidenbaugh, 81, were con artists from Canada and Jamaica, claiming they were Border Patrol or Secret Service agents, a fraud scheme that has increasingly targeted elderly people. Breidenbaugh fell behind on property taxes and last year lost his Baltimore home.
"I never told anybody what kind of mess I was in because I was too proud, too stubborn to let anybody know it," he said. "I'd like to wring the necks of these people."
Breidenbaugh plans to share his story with his peers at 7:15 p.m. Thursday at Augsburg Lutheran Home and Village, in hopes of helping others avoid being taken in.
The event, hosted during National Consumer Protection Week, is part of an effort by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to teach senior citizens to avoid sweepstakes scams — a type of telemarketing fraud.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service estimates Americans lost more than $42 million to lottery fraud between 2009 and 2011. Many of the scams the inspection service dealt with originated in Jamaica and other Caribbean countries, inspector Frank Schissler said, and targeted senior citizens.
In 2009, Jamaican and American authorities partnered to create a task force to crack down on Jamaican lottery schemes. And members of Jamaica's House of Representatives took up a bill on Tuesday that would more aggressively prosecute Jamaicans accused of lottery fraud conducted within and outside the country.
The proposed legislation states that lottery scams have become widespread and pose a threat to Jamaica because they are a combination of both organized and financial crime. "The law in its present stage has proven to be ineffective in prosecuting offenders," the bill reads.
According to Federal Trade Commission data, lottery scam complaints about Jamaican companies have risen dramatically over the past five years, from 3,606 in 2008 to a projected 28,702 last year.
Terrill Caplan, chief security officer with the nonprofit victim advocacy organization Fraud Aid, said most lottery scams come out of West Africa and are run over the Internet. Jamaican lottery fraud is less common, he said, but what sets it apart is that its perpetrators specifically go after senior citizens.
From January to September in 2012, people between the ages of 60 and 69 logged more than 1,400 lottery scam complaints against Jamaican companies and reported losing more than $4 million, according to FTC data. People 70 and older made more than 3,000 complaints and reported more than $9 million lost.
Karen Straughn, with the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland attorney general's office, said senior citizens are "prime targets" for lottery fraud because many live on fixed incomes and are more likely to take a chance on extra money.
Schissler said lottery schemes account for more than half of the telemarketing fraud against people who are 60 or older. The most successful scammers chat with senior citizens, learn about them and then use that knowledge against them, he said.
The people calling Breidenbaugh found out his wife had dementia and was in a nursing home. They told him that if he sent them money, he could use his winnings to bring his wife back to his house and hire someone to care for her.
Breidenbaugh, whose wife has since died, said he has no legal recourse against the "scumbags" who scammed him. He now lives in Nottingham with a family friend.
"No, you can't prosecute them," he said with a laugh. "You don't have any idea of knowing who they are or where they are."
Breidenbaugh said the best advice he can offer people who might be facing sweepstakes scams is to avoid conversation with anyone who calls asking for money.
"Do not say a word — just hang the phone up," he said. "Because if you say anything, they got you."
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What a shame. Its horrible to scam someone and its really too bad
at the age if 81 he still doesnt know there is no such thing as free money
If it sounds to good to be true it usually is....
Uh...excuse me...did I read $400,000 over 6 years? After even the FIRST year don't you think you'd figure out it was some kind of a scam? Yeah,it's sad and all but how many more of these do we have to read about before folks wake up.
If he had that kind of money to begin with...well,now...that's a nice chunk of change that most people don't even have sitting in their bank account. Why wasn't he using that instead for his wife's care.
Greed is a horrible thing.
How bout, after the first DAY people should be asking questions.
This is why I don't answer calls from strange area codes. Anyone who answers such calls ends up on some vary strange LISTS.
I haven't been to a foreign country or entered a foreign lottery so how could I have won? That should have been the first question! Then he should have hung up the phone...
I think some people wait their whole life to here the words "Your a winner"
If only the Television stations around the country would Air warnings about these scammers, a lot of this would never happen.
They can Air time other items of their choosing, why not Air time something to help these Seniors....
That would make a good Dateline show. Scam a bunch of people, then give it back and watch their jaws drop.
They would have to make a lot of phone calls before they found a poor greedy sucker with $400K to scam.
All I can say is if your parents & grandparents are still living please make sure you check on them ask questions about their finances.
maybe he has dementia, and forgot how much he sent?
Governments could catch these guys if they worked together or really cared about it.
But they really don't care about it cuz there's no payoff for them.
It's every man for himself nowadays.
Darn straight. I get phone calls from time to time with area codes l am not familiar with, l simply press " delete"- if it is a relative whose moved into those area codes, they had better send an email letting me know ' cause lm not picking up.
Sad story no doubt but at least his gonna warn others about this deceptive practice by some worthless folk out there.
It seems that since Americans are being targeted for these scams (more directly the senior citizens)...I believe the way we retaliate against these foreign countries is to BOYCOT TRAVELING TO THESE DESTINATIONS !!!
Hit them in the pocketbook the same way they hit us. Stop traveling to Jamaica...pretty simple solution to me. Will teach their government to be more strict on ALL illegal internet activity...and if they see tourist monies dropping at an alarming rate, perhaps they will get the picture.
Just sayin'
It looks like Norman Breidenbaugh was involved in several scams "Other calls followed, promising Breidenbaugh millions more — even a Mercedes Benz". I average about 10 of these emails a month, but never answered any of them; I can't imagine how many I'd get if answered one. Part of me feels sorry for the guy and part of me wonders why someone would think they won something they never entered and would have to pay to get their winnings.
"I never told anybody what kind of mess I was in because I was too proud, too stubborn to let anybody know it,"
That's the real problem because nobody knew was what he was doing. When the dust settled it was way to late for anyone do help him. Even if someone had told him it was a terrible idea to pay $2000 to collect his winnings, he probably would still do it because he was convinced he won millions.
I guess the question I have is, if he was so concerned about the medical bills of his wife, why the heck would he not use that $400,000
to pay for them, rather than give it away? Just wondering.
Poor old guy....he just wanted to win so bad it messed up he's thinking...
Perhaps she was on gov-ment assistance.
I agree, what a sad story, I hate to see anyone taken advantage in that way.
I think what happens is the computer dials 4 different phone #s at a time,
whoever answers 1st gets the sales pitch, the others are disconnected.
I just let the machine answer, sometimes you get a recording talking to a recording. LOL
Hi everyone,
Even though I joined a few months ago, this is my first post. So, I'm saying "Hi" I play Powerball and Megamillions regularly.
Now, on to this story, I agree with Ronnie316 when he said: "Some people wait all their life to hear "Your a winner!" They just are. I feel sorry for the 81 yr old in this story, but at the same time, I'm thinking, "How could you do this?" "How (on Earth) could you fall for this scam?" Seriously, he learned a valuable lesson the rock-hard way. Hopefully by him spreading his story to other seniors it should help them avoid the same fate.
Agreed- its no different than paying the lottery, you throw down serious cash over the lifetime of your playing " hoping" to hit the big one.There is no way anyone is gonna convince you to back off playing.. its all about " what if l won".Like a moth to a flame this codger was reeled in with the chance of having won.
But paying out $400, 000 to scammers is mindboggling.
If the government stepped in and stopped these people sending money to these scammers, someone would complain about one of their rights being taken away.
People.....
Talk to your relatives.
Talk to your relatives.
The best way to prevent this is to talk to your relatives and have the relatives talk to their friends.
It is up to us to put the word out.
Be like a person with a wallet full of baby pictures that everyone is trying to avoid.
Talk to your co-workers.
Talk to the grocery store clerks.
Talk to the people at the laundry mat.
Spread the word each and every opportunity you have.
I talk to people all the time and you would be surprised how most of these people play the lottery but don't know what we "the folks at LotteryPost" knows.
I was talking to my insurance agent and I was telling her about something lottery related and she had no idea what I was talking about.
I told her to check it out here at LotteryPost.
I try to refer as many people to this site because the best lottery player is an informed lottery player.
Dateline did a thing on internet scams and there was this guy who thought he was talking to his young and beautiful future wife and then "she" conned him out of a lot of money. I think he was doing this behind his wifes back too. There is some brain deficiency for people who believe these obvious scams and they are not all old people. I had a neighbor (years ago) who was a security guard and so was his wife (he was in his late 50's) and one time I was having dinnner at their home and he kept getting calls from soliciters where he gave out his SSN. I gave him a lecture but it did zero good.
But he was scammed time and time again. I feel very sorry for him but I think if someone called him and said this was NOT a scam, he would fall for it again.