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Couple, son charged in Detroit illegal lotteryNews Story
They went searching for drugs, but discovered a major gambling operation instead. A federal judge in Detroit today unsealed a criminal complaint detailing a large-scale, multi-state gambling operation allegedly run by an elderly Detroit couple that for decades has operated out of coney island restaurants, storefronts and homes in the Detroit area. According to the complaint, federal agents stumbled upon the gambling operation in 2007 when they went to execute a search warrant at a Farmingt
Oct 13, 2010, 9:22 pm - Lottery News

Seven arrested in underground lottery stingNews Story
Seven people are facing felony bookmaking charges after authorities say they were operating an illegal lottery out of four markets in San Pablo and Richmond, California. Authorities say the lottery was broken up after a sting operation led by the California Lottery's Security and Law Enforcement Division. Investigators say the seven suspects sold homemade tickets to buyers who were placing bets on numbers in an actual California Lottery game. Lottery spokesman Bill Ainsworth says though
Jun 11, 2010, 8:08 am - Lottery News

Alabama woman gets money back from lottery scamNews Story
An Alabama woman recently got $16,800 back after a joint U.S. and Canadian investigation into fraudulent telemarketers who represented themselves as lottery officials. The Alabama resident, whose name was not released, got her money back on May 14, according to a press release from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A multi-agency U.S-Canada initiative called Project COLT was responsible for helping return the money. Many variations exist on the lottery scams, according to
May 24, 2010, 10:56 am - Lottery News

Stringing along Jamaican lottery scammersNews Story
It's a little suspicious when the address linked to a call notifying someone they won the Maryland Lottery is in Michigan. Or Ohio. And Richard Drexel, who has worked in security for part of his career, is no fool. As soon as the call came in for his son, also Richard, the elder Drexel called the Maryland Lottery. No, in fact, they don't call you to notify you you've won they have other means. And they certainly don't ask you to pony up $150 to pay for fees and taxes before you can collect
Dec 14, 2009, 8:45 am - Lottery News

Elderly man makes the right call on lottery scamNews Story
In the Star-Telegram Watchdog column, Dave Lieber recounts how an 86-year-old man did the right thing by not getting hooked in by lottery scammers again. For more than a year, George Kahak has followed my request that he call me before investing any more money in get-rich schemes. The 86-year-old former chief pilot for American Airlines is a compulsive scam victim. He's lost tens of thousands of dollars in dozens of scams. The other day, he called to say that he won $500,000 in a lottery a
Dec 14, 2009, 8:19 am - Lottery News

Police arrest four in Chicago lottery ticket scamNews Story
Police arrested two men and two women earlier this week who allegedly ran a lottery ticket scam that targeted elderly Hispanic victims. The four worked as a team and typically sought out elderly Hispanic victims at stores and on the street, according to a release from the Chicago Police. The suspects would approach a victim two at a time and explain they were illegal immigrants and had a winning lottery ticket of more than one million dollars. They would then offer to share the winnings if
Nov 8, 2009, 8:53 am - Lottery News

Convicted embezzler to forfeit Kansas Lottery prizeNews Story
Paul W. Lyle learned that he won the grand prize in a Kansas Lottery second-chance drawing at his preliminary hearing 11 days ago. Trouble was: The former radio executive was facing a charge of felony theft for embezzling a reported $87,750 from his employer, American Media Investments, which owns three radio stations in Pittsburg, five in Joplin, Mo., and five more in Texas. The supreme irony: Lyle, 63, the company's chief operating officer until the theft was discovered in May, confessed th
Oct 3, 2009, 11:36 am - Lottery News

$25M lottery scam aimed at elderly bustedNews Story
The feds on Tuesday dismantled an Israeli boiler-room operation that conned elderly U.S. victims out of $25 million by telling them they'd won a sweepstakes lottery. A dozen members of the international telemarketing ring were named in a three-count fraud indictment handed up yesterday in Manhattan Federal Court. Prosecutors say ring members bought more than 185,000 names from U.S.-based brokers to find victims to dupe into turning over hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash to claim the
Jul 22, 2009, 6:51 pm - Lottery News

Recent checks of Iowa Lottery retailers find no fraudNews Story
Security checks at lottery ticket sale locations at about 200 locations statewide in recent months have revealed no improper payments of prizes to or by store personnel, Iowa's lottery chief told a panel of state legislators last week. Terry Rich, chief executive officer of the Iowa Lottery, played up the safety and profitability of the lottery before members of the Legislature's Oversight Committee in the wake of an expansive report by Iowa's Ombudsman of State. The April report found the lo
Jun 15, 2009, 7:14 am - Lottery News

Joint task force created to stop Jamaica lottery scamsNews Story
The feds are cracking down on Jamaican lottery scams, which bilked Americans out of more than $30 million last year, authorities said Tuesday. The brazen con artists are transforming the tropical getaway into a fraudsters paradise pulling in untraceable cash to finance the drug and gun trades with impunity, officials said. It's just an incredible amount of money that's coming down here, said Vance Callender, an Immigrations and Customs Enforcement attache at the U.S. Embassy in Kingston.
May 27, 2009, 3:25 pm - Lottery News