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Lottery scam costs Fresno man $2,300News Story
A new twist to a scam involving the Canadian lottery has cost a 77-year-old Fresno man $2,300, Fresno police reported Wednesday.David Case, a detective assigned to the department's elder abuse unit, said the victim received a letter from the International Lottery Sweepstakes of Canada, accompanied with a check for $2,450, notifying him that he had won $100,000 in the Canadian lottery.To collect his winnings, however, the victim was instructed to deposit the check and then send $2,300 (to cover C
Dec 26, 2003, 3:44 am - Lottery News

Lottery Scam Reaches N.D. Sen. ConradNews Story
The letter looked official, but Sen. Kent Conrad thought the offer was fishy: wire $700 to Germany, then $715,810 in Spanish lottery winnings was his.The North Dakota Democrat even had an agent willing to talk him through -- or into -- the deal. I'm going to go right home and tell my wife, Conrad told the man who claimed to be an international lottery official. This is going to make a very merry Christmas in the Conrad household. Conrad was one of the latest targets of a mail scam that has r
Dec 18, 2003, 3:55 am - Lottery News

Elderly woman loses $20,000 in lottery swindleNews Story
Police have issued a fraud alert after an 87-year-old Oakville woman was cheated out of more than $20,000.Halton police say the woman, who lives alone, had taken out bank drafts and couriered money to a Quebec address believing she had won $5 million in a lottery.Had police not become involved, they say the woman would have sent at least $50,000. It's an extremely sad situation because it appears this woman has sent money to this address at least four times, Halton Sergeant Val Hay said. Even
Dec 12, 2003, 5:32 am - Lottery News

Win the El Gordo jackpot with no ticket?" Fat chanceNews Story
Over the past 10 years there have been countless scams dealing with winning tickets for foreign lotteries. Most of the early scams involved someone telling you that you were the winner of a Canadian or Australian lottery jackpot, and that to get the money all you had to do was send in a modest transfer fee, or pay the taxes due on the win.Most people knew that they had never bought a ticket for these games and could not possibly have won anything.But others still sent the money. I guess greed ca
Dec 1, 2003, 5:39 am - Lottery News

$24,000 stolen in lottery schemeNews Story
Authorities are looking for a man and woman who duped a Lake Worth-area, Florida businessman into withdrawing $24,000 from his bank in a scheme involving a winning lottery ticket.Sheriff's detectives said the woman approached Claro Hernandez on Sept. 15, claiming she was an illegal immigrant. She asked if he knew of an office in West Palm Beach that offered immigration services. Hernandez, 62, a restaurateur, said he did not. But as the two spoke, a man walked up and joined the conversation, Det
Nov 26, 2003, 4:19 am - Lottery News

Tennessee man lottery scam victimNews Story
Not many people would send almost $2,000 to a person who called them on the phone out of the blue one day and said they were a winner in a lottery that they had never even entered, but one Tullahoma man says he did.Afterward, when it appeared he'd been the victim of a scam, he filed a complaint with police.The 63-year-old man told Public Services Officer Sherry Beck that a woman who identified herself as being with the U.S. Treasury Customs Department called his home Tuesday and said he had won
Nov 24, 2003, 4:49 am - Lottery News

Elderly man loses $8,000 to con menNews Story
San Jose police Thursday released composite sketches of two men sought in a recent lottery scam in which an elderly man lost $8,000 cash while trying to help a man he believed held a winning ticket.A pair of men approached the 81-year-old victim Wednesday while he was walking out of a Kmart at McKee Road and Jackson Avenue and separately asked him for directions. One man wanted to know where an attorney's office was located. He then explained that he held a winning lottery ticket but feared rede
Nov 7, 2003, 4:40 am - Lottery News

Sydney man arrested over Nigerian scamNews Story
Police in Sydney said Thursday they arrested an Australian man suspected of being part of a global, multimillion-dollar scam that dupes victims into believing they can claim some of the foreign assets of the Nigerian president.Hundreds of people in Australia and in countries including Malaysia, Japan, Norway, Greece, Indonesia and England have fallen prey to the scam, police said.The scammers send letters and e-mails asking people to help the Nigerian president recover funds that have long been
Oct 30, 2003, 5:26 am - Lottery News

If you mail in a 'fee' to claim a 'sweepstakes' prize, you've lostNews Story
Listen to me:You have not won a sweepstakes that you can claim by mailing in a processing fee. Anybody who asks you to send in a processing fee to win a prize is lying to you.They have your name on a sucker list. They sell your name and address to one another. They want to take your money. They do not care whether you are elderly, or poor, or naive, or can't buy your pills.Let me tell you about Ruth.Ruth is 85. She is the mother of a woman I know in St. Petersburg. I am not using her last nam
Oct 27, 2003, 5:03 am - Lottery News

Lottery scammer jailedNews Story
The bagman in an Edmonton bogus lottery scam that bilked $368,000 from vulnerable U.S. seniors was handed a 26-month prison term yesterday.Stephen Sutherland, 43, swore under his breath as a court constable led him away after his plea for a conditional sentence to be served in the community was rejected.Provincial court Judge Allan Lefever ruled it was necessary to put Sutherland behind bars, saying predation on the elderly requires denunciation.Sutherland pleaded guilty yesterday to fraud o
Oct 16, 2003, 3:31 am - Lottery News