Search

N.C. lottery store owners, employees winning big and oftenNews Story
Some of the same people who sell North Carolina Education Lottery tickets are winning big and winning often and that makes some people suspicious. Of the lottery retailers winning prizes, some are amassing significant jackpots repeatedly $100,000, $300,000, and $500,000 prizes dozens of times a year. Is it just dumb luck? Or do these insiders have some kind of inside track? And what is the state doing about it? A regular lottery player first brought the pattern of retailers winning the
May 1, 2009, 2:50 pm - Lottery News

New report criticizes Iowa Lottery securityNews Story
Report claims lottery not investigating fraud complaints The state ombudsman issued a report Tuesday alleging Iowa Lottery officials have failed to adequately protect the enterprise's customers from fraud and theft by retailers. Iowa Citizens' Aide/Ombudsman Bill Angrick said his review of three years' worth of lottery investigations found numerous customer complaints where leads went unexplored and potential crimes were not pursued. And, Angrick said in a 210-page report, even when the
Apr 22, 2009, 12:08 pm - Lottery News

Man loses house in lottery scamNews Story
Police have revealed that an elderly man from south west Scotland has lost his home to a foreign lottery scam. Dumfries and Galloway Constabulary made a renewed appeal to the public to be aware of the danger of bogus letters. They said two people in the region had recently lost significant sums of money with one of them actually ending up losing his own property as a result. Police warned the public never to give out bank details to anyone offering to give them significant lottery winni
Apr 4, 2009, 9:18 am - Lottery News

More Calif. stores accused of stealing customers' lottery prizesNews Story
Perhaps you're not quite as unlucky in the lottery as you thought. That scratcher ticket you tossed? Well, it just might have been a winner with the cash prize going to none other than the store owner or clerk you passed it off to as garbage. Ten retailers and clerks are accused of trying to cash in customers' winning lottery tickets at three locations in San Jose, two in Milpitas and one in Santa Clara. Nine people were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of felony grand theft of lottery ticket
Mar 6, 2009, 7:59 am - Lottery News

Lottery retailers busted in raidNews Story
Store owners, clerks accused of stealing winning tickets Lottery officials raided several mini marts Tuesday in Fresno, California. Owners and clerks were taken away in handcuffs after undercover investigators say the suspects cheated would-be customers by lying about winning tickets. Late last year officers posing as consumers showed up at many local mini marts to test their honesty. More than a dozen store owners and employees failed. Today, authorities caught up with them at the busi
Jan 22, 2009, 11:45 am - Lottery News

Woman scammed out of $400,000 pursuing lottery-sized fortuneNews Story
This may well be the mother of all Internet scam cases. Janella Spears, a reverend and a registered nurse from Sweet Home, Oregon, ended up sending Nigerian fraudsters more than $400,000 when she was promised a multi-million dollar pay out from a lost relative. When she began to doubt she was sent letters from the FBI Director, the US President and the President of Nigeria. She still thought it was genuine and ignored the pleas of her family and law enforcement officials in the US. She
Dec 9, 2008, 1:23 am - Lottery News

Florida woman loses $40,000 in lottery ticket scamNews Story
A South Florida elderly woman was scammed out of thousands of dollars in an alleged lottery ticket scam, police said. Pembroke Pines police said that on Oct. 24 Aydee Suarez-Ospina, 72, was approached by the a Hispanic man and woman at the Bravo Supermarket at 12141 Pembroke Road. Police said the man told Suarez-Ospina that he was in possession of a winning lottery ticket and needed assistance in claiming the prize because he was not a U.S. citizen. The female suspect, pretending to overhe
Dec 5, 2008, 4:42 pm - Lottery News

Three accused of buying lottery tickets with stolen credit cardsNews Story
A trio of suspected theives are in the Cowlitz County Jail after police stopped their car Monday and found hundreds of lottery scratch tickets. The tickets had allegedly been purchased using VISA cards with fraudulent numbers, police said. Shortly after 1 p.m. Monday, Kelso police officer Bebe McFall heard a dispatch report about people trying to buy hundreds of dollars' worth of scratch tickets with bad debit cards at two convenience stores. The cards were denied. McFall said she recog
Dec 3, 2008, 8:54 am - Lottery News

Wardens probed over Kenyan prisoners' lottery scamNews Story
Kenya's prison officers are at the center of an investigation over their involvement in a SMS (Short Message Service) syndicate that defrauded the public through nonexistent lotteries. Last weekend, 350 mobile phones and 400 unused SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cards were uncovered after a search of prisoners' blocks at the Kamiti Maximum Prison, and an earlier search at the Naivasha Prison uncovered 270 phones. Officers also found a register bearing the names of potential targets. The
Jul 15, 2008, 9:15 pm - Lottery News

$57M Mega Millions lottery winner is sex offender with criminal pastNews Story
Fred Topous, the Kent City man who just won $57 million in the Mega Millions lottery, is a registered sex offender with a criminal past. A co-worker describes Topous as a man who turned his life around and would do anything for a friend. Topous, 45, previously served time for larceny in Grand Traverse County. He's also been imprisoned on a weapons offense, unlawfully driving away in a vehicle, and forced-entry burglary. The burglary charge is from the 1980s. He's also on the Michigan S
Jun 20, 2008, 8:01 am - Lottery News