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Police warn of foreign lottery schemeNews Story
A new twist on an old scam has bilked some Enid, Oklahoma, residents out of $2,500 to $8,500, police said. Enid Police Department Detective Mike Riley said he's received three or four calls a day for the last couple of weeks concerning this particular scam. Some are notified by mail they have won a foreign lottery, such as the Australian, Canadian, Portuguese or United Kingdom lotteries, and are told someone will stop by to collect money to cover insurance and handling costs, Riley said. T
Apr 6, 2006, 10:15 am - Lottery News

Lottery scams use real business names to appear legitimateNews Story
Vintner Charles Sawyer knew something was wrong when a stranger called wanting to know why he'd been sent a $2,400 check. As it turned out, someone had used the good name of Sawyer Cellars in a scam that apparently took in scores of people. It was frighteningly well done, Sawyer said. The ruse appears to have been among a number of mail or telemarketing frauds promising people they've won big. To collect, all they need to do is pay a relatively small fee, the story goes. In this ca
Mar 13, 2006, 6:29 am - Lottery News

California man turns in lottery scammersNews Story
When Daniel Larsen of Pleasanton got a letter from a Canadian company called Saatchi Saatchi, he thought he had hit the jackpot literally. Enclosed in the envelope was a check for $4,900 and a letter saying this was just the start of a much bigger payday. It said I had won $250,000, said the 45-year-old painting contractor. And the ($4,900) check looked so real, I really thought I may have for a minute. However, as Larsen continued to read the letter, the company explained how h
Feb 28, 2006, 1:32 pm - Lottery News

Lottery scams target big-spending AustraliansNews Story
Overseas lottery scams are flourishing and Australians are being sucked in, many of them losing thousands of dollars, the Australian Consumer Fraud Taskforce (ACFT) says. Lottery scams, in which people are asked to pay a fee and give personal information to access winnings from a bogus lottery, are one of the most reported confidence tricks nationwide. ACFT chair Louise Sylvan said poorer consumers were attracted to the scams, which had increased at an alarming rate in recent years. Th
Feb 14, 2006, 12:24 pm - Lottery News

Iowa couple arrested in lottery fraudNews Story
A Waverly, Iowa, couple is facing criminal charges for allegedly cashing counterfeit lottery tickets. Lottery officials allege Scott and Jennifer Brandhorst redeemed the forged TouchPlay tickets at a Hy-Vee store in Cedar Rapids, one for $300 and another for $325. Cedar Rapids police reportedly matched the couple with a surveillance video. Investigators arrested the pair as they were leaving their home at 1868 Dakota Ave. in Waverly on Monday. They were taken to the Linn County Jail. T
Feb 8, 2006, 3:53 pm - Lottery News

Lottery Post member turns up the heat on the Hoosier LotteryNews Story
Is the Indiana Lottery vulnerable to inside tampering? By Kevin Leininger Fort Wayne News Sentinel You'd think Jim Grimes would be happy. After all, the retired Noble County engineer, whose concerns about the integrity of the Hoosier Lottery were the subject of a column in June 2004, helped spark an investigation that led to three indictments in an alleged million-dollar scam. But, if anything, Grimes is even more frustrated than he was when we first talked nearly two years ago - even
Jan 31, 2006, 6:06 pm - Lottery News

Penn. woman Loses $20,000 In Jamaican Lottery ScamNews Story
A Bethlehem woman was defrauded of nearly $20,000 throughout January after she was led to believe she'd won the Jamaican lottery.Sue Turnback, 68, said a woman calling herself Carrinne Campbell called her Jan. 4, police said. Campbell said Turnback won $2.2 million in the Jamaican lottery but had to mail $1,000 to Jamaica to process the winnings. Turnback sent the money in an international money order the same day. Turnback received another call later from a man calling himself Everett Montaque,
Jan 31, 2006, 7:03 am - Lottery News

Pennsylvania man loses thousands to lottery scamNews Story
Gary Young said he should have known better, but the promise of thousands of dollars clouded his judgment a bit.Now, the North Sewickley Township man is out more than $3,500, the victim of the latest scam to target the region.In a letter dated Dec. 15, from the purported Transmerica POS Prize Pool Lottery, Young was told that he had until Dec. 30 to claim a $50,000 prize. To claim the prize, he had to take a Transmerica check, worth $3,950, and cash it, so that he could wire money to the lottery
Jan 30, 2006, 7:30 am - Lottery News

California man loses $9,000 in lottery scamNews Story
Sunnyvale police are looking for two men suspected of concocting a lottery scam to steal thousands of dollars from a Sunnyvale man.According to police, the pair approached a 44-year-old man in the parking lot of the Costco at 150 Lawrence Station Road around 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 10. They told the man they had a winning lottery ticket but needed to put forward a deposit in order to claim their winnings, Lt. Marty Dale said.The suspects told the man they couldn't pay the deposit because they were no
Jan 12, 2006, 8:00 am - Lottery News

Elders fleeced in lottery scamNews Story
Several Massachusetts seniors have paid a hefty price after falling prey to a Canadian lottery scam, Danvers Police announced this week, and they've issued a public warning. Danvers has had four incidents this year, with victim's losing an average of $8,000, Sgt. Robert Bettencourt said.Recouping the losses will be tricky, police said, since the suspects based in Canada are using false identities to claim the cash and moving on to other victims assuming a new identity.The elderly residents were
Dec 9, 2005, 10:45 am - Lottery News