Includes video report
HUNTSVILLE, Alabama — Dannie Perry was a generous man who found himself caught up in a lottery scam. After relentless harassment from the criminals, he finally got them to stop contacting him.
Postal inspectors have a reminder to avoid this happening to you or your loved ones.
"It was a great American dream to win some money where you could retire and you could take care of your grand kids and your family and just do what you wanted to do," says Dannie Perry, a fraud victim.
Perry thought he won $2.5 million in a lottery sweepstakes. All he needed to do was pay a fee.
"Eight-five dollars to win $2.5 million was a small amount to invest, so I invested. It escalated and it just went into the thousands," says Perry.
The initial fee didn't bring his pay day. The scam artists kept calling and demanding more money before they'd release the winnings.
"I just got caught up in it and I exhausted some savings that I had. Then, I went to my charge cards, borrowing cash off charge cards," says Perry.
There was no prize. Perry lost almost $80,000 in pursuit of the lottery money.
"I got disgusted with myself for getting involved when I should have known better. I finally just told them I didn't have any more money," says Perry.
"It's a pipe dream. We would all love to get a lot of money," says Roger Mayhew, a U.S. Postal Inspector.
Postal inspectors say Perry is one of thousands of foreign lottery victims. These scams are costing many older Americans their life savings, retirement funds, and credit.
"We need to stop it on the front end before people have lost hundred of thousand of dollars," says Mayhew.
Awareness and communication are key. If you get a call or mailing claiming you've won a lottery, talk to family and friends who are likely to steer you in the right direction.
"You may be the lifeline that can protect them from losing their retirement that they saved and worked all of their life for," says Mayhew.
Postal inspectors remind consumers that there is no legitimate sweepstakes or lottery that will ever ask for money up front.
VIDEO: Watch the TV report
he got what he deserved ........ hope he has many sleepless nights
Man you are a hard person with no compassion. You evidently had a bad childhood...... Yes it was stupid of what he did. It sounds like he was an older person and sometimes some dont think as straight as they should. More than likely he never played a lottery and knows nothing about it...only seeing maybe how publisher clearing house comes around to give someone a big winning amount. I dont know the person but I do feel for him....exhausting all his monies....with the dream of being able to give to his grandkids and family. Personally i didnt see anything funny about your sad song with the violin....
You just better hope you dont fall senile as time marches on and fall victim yourself.
Some Story
Not again! Yeesh...when will people learn? Greed,greed,greed!
So painful to read...
Greed is powerful. Just read about a lady who lost money when told she won a Facebook lottery.
Greed has an uncanny way of biting you in the ass.
That's a shame. But he should have told them to f@#$ off and then change is number after. Nothing worse than people who harass you with phone calls.,
You can't sympathize with people who's identity get stolen and have their bank accounts emptied or credit card maxed and still have some sympathy left for greedy people like this man.
I know this sort of thing, can be pull off far to easy here. This a bone dry state. Which has not progress over time. This is the deep south, bible belt country. There is no gambling here of any type in it the one and only casino here is in state capital Mobil, AL., Because it belong to the tribe of native American, Al. can't touch it. Nothing is allow here, everything has a ban on it. It a control freak , state. If it fun it a sin, let them tell it. I was born in Il., live there most of my life, enjoy gambling, playing the lottery etc., Here I taking a five hour or more road trip to purchase all the lottery tickets for people here. AL. don't approve of any gambling, but it definitely has it hand out when you win in a another state. If you truly believe it sin, to gamble, why would you want a penny of the winning?
Thanks, cbr$, for reminding us that the lottery isn't offered in Alabama. That is probably not because the Governor and other politicians believe it to be a sin though, lol. Rather, it is because the average lottery playing adult is in the red $520/annually, each year they play.
Anyhow, no offered lottery is probably why these successful con artists are purchasing the "Retirees" phone#, address, age, etc. list!!! As the Postmaster pleaded in this article: "Awareness and communication are key. If you get a call or mailing claiming you've won a lottery, talk to family and friends who are likely to steer you in the right direction.
"You may be the lifeline that can protect them from losing their retirement that they saved and worked all of their life for," says Mayhew [Postmaster].
I AM WILLING TO BECOME THAT LIFELINE. I'm not ignorant to understanding how long it takes to amass $1M in retirement savings. ... I'M EVEN WILLING TO BEGIN WARNING/INFORMING ALL AGES OF ADULTS BEFORE THEY MENTION THIS TOPIC. EXCELLENT, EASY, CARING LOSS PREVENTION!
Unfortunately these type of scams will continue to play out. The thieves and crooks out there know full well that the United States is full of uninformed, gullible individuals who are ripe for their con games.
All too true.
These stories have to be told because all to often greed supplants common sense. This is also a wake up call for future millionaires to pay heed and avoid Greed at all costs. Todd is doing a great service by educating the Lottery Post faithful...imho.
Awareness and communication are key. If you get a call or mailing claiming you've won a lottery, talk to family and friends who are likely to steer you in the right direction.
I have both family and friends who play PCH so they might not give the best advice. I don't know how to convince someone it's greed believing they won a contest they never entered. Some state lotteries contracted banks to pay winnings over $600 to $5000 and there might be a processing fee involved, but the fee is deducted from the winnings. How anybody thinks they must pay a fee to collect winnings is just plain stupidity.
Before MM came to Ohio and I traveled to Michigan to get tickets, I sent my brother in Virginia a $100 to be prepared to buy some MM tickets for me when I called him later and mail them to me but when I called to give him my numbers, he had all of a sudden got religious and couldn't buy lottery tickets. He also never returned my money. When family and friends find out you have extra money to spend on lottery tickets, they can be scammers too.
Once again,
Yes Alabama is a bone dry state with no change in site. Luckly i reside in mobile. Which have me 45 minutes from pcola and an hour from bioloxi. And cbr$ the state capital is in montgomery. There are no casino in mobile but we have the dog track.
I feel for the guy, but geez!!! The old saying that can keep most people from ever getting scammed and that should have been carved in his brain. "IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT MOST LIKELY IS".
There is no telling how much money these horrible scammers manage to get from people. I was once called told I had won the lottery, the moment I heard "but you have to pay...." I hung up. They called back, I hung up again. They called back, I cussed them out real good, told them I have NO MONEY, they're not getting bleep, and to bleep off!!!! The calls stopped. I don't even know how the crooks got my phone number to begin with. But trust after I gave them a good cursing they left me alone!!!
It's sad this man fell victim to this, but to lose $80,000? It should have stopped long before that!!!
One morning I got a message on SKYPE giving me a fully convoluted story. Needless to say, I just blocked the contact right away and haven't been bothered since. But it just goes to show that all types of media are susceptible to the 'touch'.
Alabama did put the lottery to a vote a few years ago but the people voted it down. I guess Alabama residents have to travel to FL, GA, or TN for tickets.
Here in Louisiana we have a lottery, riverboat casinos, a land based casino in New Orleans, Indian casinos, and in some parishes, video poker machines in bars, restaurants, and truck stops. Before Texas and Arkansas started lotteries, we would frequently get players from those states, and we often get winners from Mississippi since they don't have a lottery.
The lottery was a hot debate in the 1980s here. There were many legislators who insisted the public didn't want it and would vote against lottery bills, but some others thought the opposite and kept bringing it up. Finally a bill was introduced to put it to a vote of the people. Many of the legislators who were against it voted for the that bill so it could be put on the ballot and decided on once and for all. In 1990, 69% of the people voted yes and we got our lottery.
Months & years go past, more warnings go out and yet, here we are, another gormless individual who's common sense and ability to think with any reasonableness went right out the frickin window...
Sympathy and compassion for this man ?....zero
Will there be another one similar ?..... coming soon
Will it ever stop ? ..not in my lifetime
I don't care what anyone says...You can NOT fix stupidity !!!
Stay fiesty my friends !