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Jamaica making new efforts to curb lottery scamsNews Story
Jamaican officials said Thursday that they are hopeful new legislation will finally result in a stream of convictions and lengthy sentences for fraudsters behind a multimillion-dollar lottery scam that has swindled mostly elderly Americans out of their retirement savings for years. National Security Minister Peter Bunting told reporters that the law reform act will result in a vastly accelerated number of successful prosecutions of swindlers who have made the island a center for cross-border
Mar 15, 2013, 10:48 am - Lottery News

Baltimore man, 81, loses his home after falling for lottery scamNews Story
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 pe
Mar 7, 2013, 9:01 am - Lottery News

Elderly woman tells lottery scam artist to get a job and quit bothering herNews Story
Scam artists have been targeting a small community in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and police are warning residents to be aware. The phone scams are concerning, especially for older people, and also nearly impossible to prosecute. Most of the time the person on the other line, is not in this country. In the past week, two people have gone to the Manor Township Police saying that someone tried to scam them over the phone. One person was told their son was in an accident and they needed to send
Jan 22, 2013, 10:00 am - Lottery News

8 lottery scam suspects arrested in JamaicaNews Story
Eight people accused of defrauding U.S. citizens through a multinational lottery scam were arrested during raids of several homes on a single street in Jamaica's capital, police announced Thursday. A police statement said officers detained six males and two females during the Wednesday night operation in Havendale, a middle-class community at the foot of the mountains that tower above Kingston. They also seized nearly $150,000 in cash, jewelry, eight flat-screen television sets and five cars,
May 21, 2012, 10:42 am - Lottery News

Store owner tried to scam woman out of lottery winningsNews Story
Louisiana Lottery able to track down real winner A woman was almost scammed out of her lottery winnings by the convenience store where she bought the ticket, according to Louisiana Lottery officials. But a simple step helped authorities find the rightful winner. Fong Kwok hasn't had a day off in four years. So when she found out she won $10,000 in the Louisiana Lottery she was ecstatic. That day I just was so happy, said Kwok, who owns Bamboo Restaurant in New Orleans East. I could not
May 20, 2012, 7:23 am - Lottery News

Jamaican lottery scams spread despite US crackdownNews Story
The 88-year-old retired Coast Guard officer hadn't been outside the U.S. in decades. Yet phone calls started pouring in from Jamaica, dangling the prospects of huge winnings from an international lottery that he had won. There was a catch, of course. He had to send a check to pay the tax on his winnings. He wired the money to Jamaica. Soon he was ensnared in a scam that may cost him his home in an assisted living facility outside Seattle. It's been heartbreaking, said Ruth Wilson, a Seatt
Apr 19, 2012, 11:43 pm - Lottery News

N.Y. man lost $100,000 in lottery scamNews Story
A Saratoga County, New York, man may have lost more than $100,000 in an international email-based scheme that used fraudulent IRS forms to dupe victims into believing they'd won a multi-million dollar lottery but needed to pay fees to collect their winnings. A 14-month investigation by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration uncovered a trail of email and bank accounts that led to European suspects who had obtained credit card and bank account information for an unknown num
Apr 5, 2012, 11:24 am - Lottery News

7 guilty in $2M lottery fraudNews Story
Seven people have pleaded guilty in a lottery telemarketing fraud that U.S. prosecutors say bilked mostly elderly victims out of an estimated $2 million. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Tuesday the seven all residents of Israel carried out the fraud in 2007 and 2008. Lior Orgad, David Yamin, and Mor Galanti pleaded guilty in New York, while Guy Mayo, Elad Mayo, Asi Almakias and Yaniv Kalbers entered guilty pleas March 15, the U.S. Justice Department
Mar 23, 2011, 2:04 pm - Lottery News

Nigerian lottery scammer sentenced to 14 yearsNews Story
A Nigerian man who swindled three Californians out of more than $400,000 by demanding tax on bogus foreign lottery winnings was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal prison. The people who typically fall for such scams are older, sometimes people who have dementia and are lonely and need someone to talk to, an assistant U.S. attorney said. One of Emmanuel I. Onwuzulike's victims, a San Fernando Valley woman, lost her home after she paid more than $368,000 for a phony tax on what she though
Dec 2, 2010, 6:33 am - Lottery News

Con artists target N.J. seniors in lottery scamNews Story
The first call came in December. How are you? How's your day? We have a wonderful thing to tell you, a 65-year-old Ocean County woman said of her first telephone conversation with the Jamaican-sounding strangers. They said I had won an award, the woman said. (The prizes) ranged from $1.5 million to over $5.5 million. The callers told her she had to send them money to purchase stamps so that her prize could be delivered. She sent the money, but then she got more phone calls with vario
Nov 7, 2010, 9:55 am - Lottery News