Similar name to real winner leads to many phone calls, text messages
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A Port St. Lucie woman said she is being mistaken for a Florida Lottery scratch-off game winner because they share a similar name.
Tammy Henry Jordan said her phone has been ringing off the hook, and her text messages are piling up.
Jordan said it seems people are confusing her with a Jupiter woman named Tammy Henry, who recently won $2 million.
"My name is Tammy Henry Jordan," Jordan told WPBF 25 News. "Her name is Tammy Henry. She's 43. I'm 44. She lives in Jupiter. I live in Port St. Lucie."
Jordan even filled a police report, because the callers are threatening to come to her home and collect some of the cash.
"I've been receiving congratulations phone calls," Jordan said. "I've been receiving threatening phone calls. 'I know you won.' 'You don't have to lie.' 'We know where you live.'"
Jordan said she is scared someone may show up at her home and is staying with family members.
"I guess this is the honey-comb hideout," Jordan's sister, Felicia Vickers, said.
Jordan said she's telling everybody she isn't the winner, but they don't believe her. She said she has a plan if she ever does win.
"She won $2 million," Jordan said of the real winner. "I think God is preparing me for $10 million, so therefore when I win $10 million I know not to tell anybody."
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Thanks to B$Rizzle for the tip.
Congratulations to the winner. I didn't know there was a mistake.
I'm glad that WPBF indicated what a "threatening" phone call sounds like, that it isn't rare, and that there are a lot of people who believe they are entitled to another person's resources (and each believer is not clinically insane).
The threatening calls should be promptly turned over to the cops; let them do something useful for a change.
I wouldn't want calls/texts from anyone I hadn't been talking to before.
"I think God is preparing me for $10 million, so therefore when I win $10 million I know not to tell anybody"
And that my friends, is the moral of the story.
TELL NO ONE!
Unfortunately, you can count on the lottery commission to release your name to the public.
'I know you won.' 'You don't have to lie.' 'We know where you live.'
Unbelievable.
I would respond to that phone call by inviting the callers over and introducing them to my good friend Sam Colt and my buddies, Smith and Wesson.
This is why all lotteries should let people claim their winnings anonymously!!!
I dont get it. If you win $250,000 in Florida you are home safe and anonymous but if you oh so happen to win $1 Million + , your life is in danger ...
WTG Fl lotto. It wont be long until you get another winner killed !!
I don't get it. Did this woman receive threats because the winner told a lot of people? Would I be safe with 1 million+ as long as I don't tell anyone?
I didn't realize lottery winners were harassed to this extent, even mistaken identity ones. I am really surprised it's this bad. It really goes to show you, you must be careful who you tell. I guess I was right when I said, IF I ever won, I would move away and leave no forwarding address.
But to be truthful with everyone, the chances of winning are virtually none. As such, I have cut way back on my playing. I rarely ever play the long odds games anymore. I hardly even play the 5/5 game here in California. I haven't quit, I've just cut back.
or were these people just calling random lottery winners, asking for money. Basically, I want to know if this is a problem the winner could have prevented. (by not telling anybody)
This is scary stuff, I hope she find peace.
You would be surpised how many nut cases come out of the wood work and actually believe they are entitled to some parts of a winner's money whether they know them or not. The threats..treat them like they are REAL!!
I wish in all states people could remain anonymous. Here in FL we cant =(
just a little fyi, you can remain anonymous, you just can't use the trust path in A dirct way.
you can however, use the corporation or llc purchased the tickets path
and be anonymous via A trust as the solo "Owner" of say whatever said corporation claims, Hot ! Mwahahahaha
don't let what the florida lottery says or what ever idiot thinks tell you otherwise, their also a option.
you see, the united states supreme court, bless their stupid little hearts, said corporations are in fact People, aka also have all the rights of people
they can claim a ticket, just like you or me, now set one up, and using lawyer paperwork skills,one would also be in charge of said corporation.
the "owner" will be a trust, people can put their ownership of a corporation in a trust , yes
and their you go, a trust will end up with the money, however so much paperwork and brains are needed to pull this off, you better be a major pb or mm winner to to even bother going down such a path that cost you a ton for a smart lawyer to do the work for you.
but it can be Done, lucky i live in tn, where they just allow you to use a freaking trust and don't have to go thro the loopholes to end up with a trust claiming, geez
if anyone of you do win in FL and get a chance to pull this off
plz name your corporation, "you never get this winner found and killed Florida"
that should make your point. but am sure you just use some low profile , boring sounding name of common names ,
That might be good advice for Tammy Henry Jordan of Port St. Lucie if she wins lots of money in the lottery, but the problem here is Tammy Henry of Jupiter won the money. Life certainly would have been much easier for Jordan had Henry claimed her $2 million scratch-off ticket using a trust, but she didn't.
Telling everybody with a common name to get an unlisted phone number just in case someone with a similar sounding name wins a jackpot would be better advice.
LOL. That's exactly what I was thinking!!!!
Joshua, although most of what you said is in fact TRUE, there is a false assumption that you listed.
Even if a person in FL files the claim under a trust, the FL lottery can and WILL release the sole proprietor of that trust aka; persons name.
So a person can try and hide behind a company name all they want, but the FL Lottery will check out the owner of the trust, corporation, company etc and release the owner of that entity in their press release.
exactly .. i wish they would try me!
Todd, please find a gun toting emoticon for us [registered] gun owners!
"I've been receiving congratulations phone calls," Jordan said. "I've been receiving threatening phone calls. 'I know you won.' 'You don't have to lie.' 'We know where you live.'"
If she's not careful she could end up like the Florida lottery winner Abraham Shakespear by mistake.
The women charged with his murder claims she was only trying to steal his money and home and has no idea how he ended up buried in her back yard under a concrete pad.
Where the information goes off kilter B$Rizzle, is that the company owner can be Huckleberry Finn ( Fictious name) , Trust can and are set up that way to protect the body of interest, be it a trust fund baby or en endowment to an institution. Sorry but Florida doesnt waste months tracking things down that are sealed by the courts for good reason. The Florida Lottery can be sited for this by the Trust entity . Some records are sealed and cannot be opened to public knowledge even on awards given such as the Lottery .
LOL You got that right!! Or better yet I'd hook up some good ole electricity to the metal screen door, not to much but just enough to watch em yelp!!!! Come on over I'm the lottery winner.
People calling your cell phone usually either already know you or know someone close to you.
What she has found out is how many jerks are in/near her inner circle.
GameGirl - I Understand that, however FL laws can be and probably are quite different here than in PA regarding business filings with the state. No matter how someone in FL wants their DBA (Doing Business As) name to be, it is still registered to an actual legal name ("person"). That person can easily be unveiled by a simple search on the Division of Corporation site established in FL. A ficticious name is just another way of saying "Doing Business As", so a person can create an actual business name rather than using "John Smith". That way "John Smith" can operate under the ficticious name: "Johns Flowers". Anyone can still look up the owner/trustee of "Johns Flowers".
There is much to be said regarding this and everyone has their own ideas or options so well just have to leave it at that ;)
leave it at that, o hell no, i hate people giving people wrong idea's
the fact is once money in a legal trust, you can firewall any winner real identity
, in this case, i can even side step any insane florida law's while am at it to prove my point
how it would be done.
corporation claims pb in Florida, your record laws can find out its Owned by x Trust, the trustie , will just be a Lawyer!
will congrats you know the lawyer , now he being paid to not tell you who the real beneficiaries are, you know that right?
form a legal stand point, am insulted you people in florida think you somehow have special rights to access the trust records to whoever the beneficiaries are.
now even if you could find out the beneficiaries! by somehow accessing their records, guest what i can do , o look the beneficiaries is just a other trust, could even be a diff lawyer as the trustie, and to add insult to injury, i can make that 2nd trust , a trust based in a other state, say TN with its own diff trust laws etc, it would take legal battle no in their right mind, you be laughed out of court before you ever find out real names of the beneficiaries
you in theory could go on forever, with trust having other beneficiaries be trust's as will,
I Don't give a rats beep about your state laws , once its in a trust, any trust lawyer worth their law degree can channel that money into black Hole far as you all finding out who it is...
get a great trust/corporation lawyer if your in florida and get it Done. tell them what you want. and demand it be done,
that's why i said don't let what the florida lottery says or what ever idiot thinks tell you otherwise, their also a option
and i mean what i say, i know to much about legal world of trust's and corporations to know you Can't hide your true Name form almust everyone but the IRS it self LOL
as for this lady, sucks to be her. no money and treated like them via requests. OH
but proves a point lottery winners who go public, are just sitting them self's up, everyone has access to computor/net, and with that, all they need is your legal name and city just add's insult to it, and bam they got your address, phone, ever thing PUBLIC will be their. and Their to many bad people who ask people for Money, and go out of their way to do it.
, i have seen all the lottery winners shows,like tlc ,curse of the lottery, uk does some shows on their winners also.
where winners point out how much requests they get, the fact florida winner have been murdered for the money alone by a scam artist who got to him, should prove the point
to never make your self a target in today's world, people don't treat lottery winners the same, and ever story like this Proves it more and more
maybe being famous is some people thing, but majority of us i think just went the money and not the famous part LOL
And the only way around that problem is to have an out of state trust claim the winnings! FL then has no right to any information from the other states' secretary who receives and files said trust in that state! Problem Solved!!!!!!!!
No state has any rights to information from another states' secretary for trust filings, unless that state that's asking for said information can show some sort of fraud is being commited and then they are going to need a court order to get said information! Never use a trust to claim any prize that was filed in the same state as the prize, Always use an out of state trust!
who needs to win lotto? you just need to have same name, or eeep buy a house off of a winner who doesnt tell you. to be murdered in your sleep.
no blind trust would help in this situation, and worse no winningsa to disappear with.
and you are more likely to have the same name as someone who wins than actually win yourself
i base that on the odds of having someone with the same name out there. meaning that nime is more likely to win than you. as there are at least 2 of that name.
Imagine what the people who have the last name of Hitler must go through on a daily basis. Whats kinda stange about the story is this person who didn't win actually went public and brought more attention to herself. She's begging to be trolled by some professionals now.
something's not right with this story... you don't hear about real lottery winners such as Richard Lustig being harrassed and threatened. I am sure if lottery winners would be harrassed like this woman was, then it would end up on the news.
I am sure if lottery winners would be harrassed like this woman was, then it would end up on the news.
um real lottery winners have DIED because they won the lottery.
"Imagine what the people who have the last name of Hitler must go through on a daily basis."
Yer dern tootin!
Imagine what life has been like for me with a name like Benito Mussolini!
Ain't too many backwoods country boys with a name like that.
I went through hell with this name!
Me and my brother Tojo are both thinking about gettin our names changed.
either because they commited suicide after financial and family troubles or because someone killed them after they blabbed their win to everybody. Basically if you win and don't tell anybody, you should be fine.
+1.
I live in a house with two roommates and we all have guns. If I were to win the lottery I would likely stay here until the rent agreement is up and though I plan on collecting through a blind trust, if my name did get out I wouldn't be too worried about someone coming to my house trying to do something.
God blessed Texas with His own hand
Brought down angels from the promised land
Gave 'em a place where they could dance
If you wanna see heaven brother here's your chance
I've been sent to spread the message
God blessed Texas
Good catch, If your getting texts , it's someone you know.
Its a pity that winners have to endure the numerous phone calls and threatening ones too at that it is aweful~
You too could be a Winner if you play! Others are taking a chance for themselves!
It doesn't matter if you personally haven't told anyone, once it's publicized it's out there. On one of TLC's lottery programs a jackpot winner from New Mexico said complete strangers were contacting him and asking to be sponsored in the World Series of Poker or cover their credit card spending when one ran up $75,000 in charges for Chrsitmas.
I feel bad for her, but she is probably learning now who her real friends are.
Considering I read once that an man in the U.S. who won told of how he had gotten a phone call from Indonesia asking for money, no story would surprise me.
Simply having a decent job is reason enough for some people to come knocking at your door asking for money.
not saying that this is fact, just throwing it out there as a possibility (looks suspicious):My theory:
This woman is a regular reader of the Florida Lottery's Press Releases. When she opens the story from may 4, she finds a woman with the same name as her and decides to make up a story.
Reason behind theory: if this woman isn't the winner, then who exactly were the people who harassed her? were they people who knew the winner or the woman?(after all they knew her cell phone number). Also, how exactly did the people who harassed her find out about her win?
$2 Million? The hooplah will die down and she'll be forgotten. If it's bothering her that much she can change
her phone numbers. And the death threats? Come on now...it's not $200 Million. Yeah, yeah people have
been killed for less but this story just seems too sensational for the non-winner.
I was wondering about that too because if lots of people are harassing someone with a similar name, you would think the winner is getting lots of phone calls too. The story says nothing about the real winner.
that's what I meant from the beginning; something isn't right and there IS a chance that she made it up because she wanted to have a little fun. Random strangers don't go harassing 2 million dollar winners.
Hopefully she gets left alone now.
A nearby Taxidermy shop has a sign that says "If you are found here at night, you will be found here in the morning"
We target practice regularly around here, not wise to show up after a threat !
Yeah, could be she was just trying to create her own 15 minutes of fame and it backfired or she's making the whole thing up.
LOL! That's a good one.
Our local hardware store has a sign that says " Free police car rides , if you steal from us"
This is exactly why lotteries should allow winners to remain anonymous!
On the other hand, I can also see lotteries wanting and needing to make the winners public. If everyone was anonymous, then the public might suspect the Lotteries were faking winners and scamming the public. So I can see the need to make winners public.
However, there has to be a happy medium for those who request anonymity.
I need to buy THAT sign for my front electric fence, I do not hunt but I shall make a special waivers for the brave/stupid ones who pepetrate threats and harm to me and mine.
LOL, thanks dpoly, you made by day!
Over a decade ago, a man killed another man over the last hotdog on the grill.
People will kill over $25, much less $200,000.