COLLIER COUNTY, FL — The Collier County Sheriff's Office is warning residents about a popular lottery scam.
An elderly Golden Gate, Florida, couple told deputies they were swindled out of a large amount of cash Thursday by two people who promised to share lottery winnings with them.
A 76-year-old man and his 92-year-old wife said they were at the Grand Buffet restaurant on US-41 in East Naples when two men approached them. The men claimed to have won $500,000 in the lottery.
The men said they couldn't cash the ticket because they didn't have legal citizenship status. They asked the elderly couple for cash in exchange for the ticket, and the couple agreed.
The couple rode with the men to two different banks to withdraw large amounts of cash — which the couple placed in an envelope.
One man complained of stomach pain and asked the couple to go inside the K-Mart located on Golden Gate Parkway to buy him medication.
When the couple came out of the store, the men were gone. The couple also discovered that, at some point, the men had emptied the cash from the envelope.
One of the suspects was described as a Hispanic male in his late 20s. He was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed around 180 pounds. He also had black hair and brown eyes.
The other suspect was described as a Hispanic male about 35 years old. He was around 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighed around 160 pounds. He also had brown hair and brown eyes.
Their vehicle was described as possibly a gray Nissan sedan.
The Collier County Sheriff's Office wants to remind the public that immigration status does not prevent anyone from cashing a Florida Lottery ticket. In addition, any taxes due are deducted from the winnings.
Anyone with information should call the Collier County Sheriff's Office at 239-252-9300, or if you wish to remain anonymous call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477).
Scammers will continue to pray on the old and uninformed. Warnings can only do so much before greed takes over.
There could be a little greed in all of us.
If it sounds to good to be true then it is too good to be true. Be alert.
When you win big at the Lottery you can only trust a few friends. The others hate you because they think that they deserve the money more then you do.
Go and visit any prison here in the US and you will see why you cannot trust strangers.
God Bless Christians who work in prisons and visit the inmates.
Greed and being uninformed is a lethal combo. They're lucky they lived to tell.
Always check on your elderly loved ones.
I know they still fight for their independence, but, "please do check on them".
My aunt is 88 and she ordered a Ipad, to do her banking?
I was like, OMG, OMG, No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My big sister is taking her to the Apple store, for class.
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These guys are all around, I was at my local quick trip, and this guy pulled up beside me, and start explaining he could fix the dent in my car?
His car was older than mine, and in worse shape, lmaooooooooooooooooooooo, he also had a child and a young woman with him?
But, you want to repair a dent in my car?
I don't think so, lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
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I was at another gas station , lol
I was in line, turned around to leave, it was 2 young guys behind me, one said, "Do you have a quarter"?
I said, "FOR WHAT"? lmaooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, he waited a few minutes, then said, taxes, lmaoooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
I said, "I need this quarter and another one to make a 50 cent bet to win $50.00", lmaoooooooooooooooooo.
Shame .
Sad sorry to read this news about gullible folks who were swindled by these parasites from out of nowhere.
Something just doesn't add up here.
I mean, how naive do you have to be to believe that yarn? For one thing, I don't know of any restriction on non-citizens cashing lottery tickets, outside of the possibility that they might have to pay higher taxes or duties on the winnings than a citizen would. And if you are helping someone to evade (not avoid*) taxes for a fee, I am fairly certain that you are committing a felony by doing so.
I'm looking at the difference in age between the husband and wife (he's 76, she's 92), and I'm starting to wonder if he's a retired gigolo who is still working his 'trick.' In other words, I wonder if the wife was the one with all the money, and if the husband was somehow in on it. Maybe she would normally not fall for such a scam on her own, but with her husband sitting next to her telling her to "go for it" ...
*Note:
"Avoiding taxes" means finding legal ways to lower your tax bill; that's what tax accountants and lawyers are paid for. Contrast that with "evading taxes," which refers to illegal ways of not paying taxes, such as cooking the books in your business, or running a scam where you cash so-called "IRS signer" tickets at the horse track on behalf of other winners in high tax brackets for a commission.
What's the difference in age ? At least they are married. Regardless u don't take advantage of anyone. Respect your elders.
These elderly or less savvy people need to learn to say..... "No."
" Can you wait a minute while l use my cell phone to ask my son for advice, his a policeman!"
Aren't you old enough to know better?
I know everyone wants to feel sorry for the poor elderly couple that got swindled, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they weren't helping purely out of the kindness of their hearts. Even if they didn't know that non-residents can claim a lottery win, they still had to have known that claiming they bought the ticket and that it was their winnings is wrong. Sounds to me as if they, just like the crooks, were looking to make a quick buck. To paraphrase Matchstick Men, the money wasn't stolen, it was given away.
I think Teddi is spot on!
"The couple rode with the men to two different banks to withdraw large amounts of cash.." WOW. Kerrazy. Greed, baby, nothin' buy greed. Somehow I just can't feel sorry for these people any longer.
I feel for the elderly couple. However, it they hadn't succumbed to greed and stupidity, they wouldn't have been scammed.
If something looks to good to be true, it usually is!
Oddly enough collier county is not a democrat voter zone ( only about 34% ) , 64% voted romney in 2012, so I am a bit surprised as it is normally democrat voters that always get duped.
This is the oldest scam in the book. When they get these two , please throw them under the jail & throw away the key.
They asked the elderly couple for cash in exchange for the ticket, and the couple agreed.
Why didn't the elderly couple scan the ticket and verify the value before buying it? Greed?
Duped you say, ok.
Be stupid enough to tell me you don't have legal status!
Greed begets greed
it's inconceivable and virtually impossible for 2 people to be that stupid and actually have money in the bank to be scammed out of. smells of a set-up with husband involved.
This doesn't surprise me since there's people that fall for the Jamaican scam. They probably asked a bunch of people before getting lucky.
MPM >>>>>>>
............everyone luv's a lottery ticket that's a WINNER $$$$$........does anyone on LP remember the Patel'$>>>>>>>>???????????
but, now we got the Paco brothers doing it to the older citizens of Flordia>>>>>>>>>>HOW LOW can we go????women and children "next" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"LOOK OUT" for these two as described driving a Mercedes, Porsche, Maybach, McLaren>>>> but not a<<<<<<<
NISSIAN 
How d the crooks know this particular older couple had that huge bank account....the husband!
LS...........you may be on to getting the big REWARD for solving this case but they the authorities must catch-um first if you are now going to git the money.
Please update authorities to NOW BE ON LOOKOUT for a 76 year old man riding around in a grey Nissan sedan and two Hispanic males, as described now
in a Mercedes, Porsche, Maybach, McLaren or maby a Lamborghini but never, never no more in a grey NISSAN>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>!!!!!!!!!
LOL
lol psykomo, you're the best ! I cant imagine lp w/o you
never never agree to someone else"S proposition never
Security cameras will help this investigation.
Banking Has procedures in place for large withdrawal's. So it must not have been anywhere near the reported value of the supposed ticket.
My Meds have made me see strange things but never two guys with a (??)winning ticket(??) asking me to help em. ...Now Leprechauns...thats another story!
Haha.
A fool and his money are soon parted.
I don't feel sorry for these old elderly bats. They were greedy, naive, and willing to commit a crime. They should be locked up with the Hispanic males that swindled them out of their money.
At that age you should know better, especially since they didn't win the ticket themselves and they were approached by strangers trying. My preschool aged nephew knows not to talk to strangers.
Everytime I tried purchasing a get rich quick scheme off tv I would always remember my grandma saying ''if it sounds too good to be true then it probably is.''
Hope this serves as a lesson learned.
Cant wait to see you at their age and dimished mental capacity. Hope you do well.
Teddi, ICAM with you, there are a lot of elderly included my parents who could not be conned by these scammers. All I could think is the couple must know the lottery rules and figured because the two men claimed they're illegals here, that they don't know they can still claim the winnings without using a legal American/Resident. At the end of the day, seem to me some people lived by the code......Greed is good....from Wall Streets the movie.
Yea, the banks should have asked what the money was for and most likely did. I am thinking the two lied to the bank about what it was for.
Banks have gotten REALLY good at that. If anyone takes ANY money out, even for a couple of grand they ask & ask to try to stop these kinda things.
Is there any way you can post something without resorting to insults? You do have platinum membership, feel free to put me on block
Zinnia, I think that that's an assumption a lot of people make and it's plain wrong. Being old doesn't automatically make you mentally incompetent. It would be great if everyone stops making that assumption. Unless you can prove to me that these people do in fact have a diminished mental capacity, it has no bearing on the argument. It has some bearing on the kind of people who would scam an elderly couple, people we're supposed to respect. But that's about it. Even if the seniors thought they were doing something nice, they obviously knew they were doing something wrong, or not quite on the up and up. And they did it anyway. Sorry they got burned, but it's the chance you take when you do something you know is wrong in order to make a quick buck.
Your calling Democrats folks who are usually duped not an insult? Even though I am not affiliated with any political party, you don't get to spew nonsense and assume no one will call you on it. I posted your war leader right up there to get you to ask yourself " was l along with millions of other Republicans duped? The other thing you have no clue about is that having Platinum status does not prevent you from posting your responses to any of my threads * l wish it did, be thankful you tolerated.
People that age are not aware of the scams. Most do not, or have never surfed the web, which is where most people learn of these scams. They probably didn't even own a cell phone. Most of the posters here who criticise them, would have pause to use a rotary telephone to make a call.