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With promise of $1.5m prize, scam artist bilks woman out of nearly $28,000News Story
Vivian Murphy thought back to that heart-stopping moment when the voice on the phone proclaimed her the winner of a $1.5 million sweepstakes prize. For decades, Murphy, 85, had been a huge fan of Publishers Clearing House, the peddler of magazine subscriptions and household items widely known for TV commercials of winners dissolving into happy tears when presented with a gargantuan check. She entered nearly every drawing in the company's 50-year history, during which lucky winners have receiv
May 15, 2018, 8:12 am - Lottery News

NY credit union chief accused of embezzling money from fund, spending $3.55M on lottery ticketsNews Story
The head of the city's oldest credit union embezzled money from the fund for years splurging on millions worth of lottery tickets by submitting bogus invoices for dental work and other expenses, federal prosecutors said Tuesday. Kam Wong, 62, from Valley Stream, L.I., who heads the Municipal Credit Union, allegedly used the ill-gotten gains to purchase some $3.55 million in New York State lottery tickets, according to Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman. He also obtained numerous other
May 8, 2018, 9:06 pm - Lottery News

The man who cracked the lotteryNews Story
Crime story: A recounting of the biggest lottery scandal in history The file landed on Rob Sand's desk with something less than a thud. Despite holding the contents of an investigation still open after more than two years, the file was barely half an inch thick. Happy birthday, his boss said. It was not Rob Sand's birthday. His boss, an Iowa deputy attorney general named Thomas H. Miller, was retiring in July 2014 after nearly three decades of prosecuting everything from murder to fraud. H
May 3, 2018, 2:49 pm - Lottery News

Iowa Lottery wins International Gaming-Compliance award for work in lottery rigging investigationNews Story
Long-running case culminated in 2017 guilty pleas from three men The Iowa Lottery has won an international gaming-compliance award for its work in the long-running lottery jackpot investigation that uncovered fraud against U.S. lotteries and resulted in guilty pleas from three men. GamblingCompliance on Wednesday named the Iowa Lottery its 2018 recipient for outstanding achievement in compliance. The organization's annual awards that recognize excellence in 11 categories focused on regulat
Apr 19, 2018, 10:29 am - Lottery News

Infamous lottery scammer says US computerized lottery drawings remain fatally flawedNews Story
Eddie Tipton warned them. As the head of IT at the Multi-State Lottery Association, Tipton pulled aside his boss and told him the computer software that randomly selected the winning numbers for million-dollar games in as many as 17 states had a terrible flaw. It wasn't really random. Though his boss listened, Tipton told state investigators that other officials with the nation's chief lottery system did not. They told him to fix it, then moved on. A disgruntled Tipton made some upda
Mar 19, 2018, 8:32 am - Lottery News

How a gaming geek with a checkered past pulled off the biggest lottery scam in U.S. historyNews Story
12-15-18-29-38-41. Eddie Tipton jotted down the numbers on a yellow sticky note as he sat at his desk in Urbandale more than a decade ago. Around him were more sticky notes filled with number sets that he carefully wrote down as they spun up on his computer screen. The numbers were generated by a cryptic two-line software code Tipton had planted in his employer's computer system at the Multi-State Lottery Association. The office building was virtually empty as Tipton ran test after test
Mar 16, 2018, 7:48 am - Lottery News

More millennials than seniors losing money to scamsNews Story
Forget the clich of the vulnerable senior citizen falling victim to scammers a larger share of young people reported that they lost money to fraud than older individuals did in 2017. Among consumers ages 20 to 29, 40% of those who made fraud complaints to the Federal Trade Commission lost money, compared with just 18% of those who were ages 70 and older, according to an annual report from the federal agency released Thursday. The report examined consumer complaints made to the FTC in 2017.
Mar 4, 2018, 10:12 pm - Lottery News

Brothers admit guilt in lottery scamNews Story
Two siblings from Maryland who convinced multiple local residents to pay taxes and fees in advance of collecting on nonexistent lottery winnings entered guilty pleas Thursday in federal court. Daniel Archer, 29, and Matthew Archer, 28, each pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green to 20 counts of wire fraud. The two men accepted plea agreements in which they will pay $728,442.18 in restitution. Each count of wire fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, but
Jan 19, 2018, 3:06 pm - Lottery News

Georgia Lottery denies millions in prizes to winners of scratch-off gamesNews Story
The Georgia Lottery Commission has refused to pay more than $17.1 million in scratch-off game prizes since 2014 the year lottery officials instituted a policy of investigating big-money winners. The lottery has issued 270 denial letters to winners of $1,000 or more in the past four years, citing a variety of suspicions that could be fraud: people who claim multiple winning games in a relatively short period of time; winners who can't identify where or when the game was purchased; or individua
Dec 20, 2017, 7:13 pm - Lottery News

2 more suspects plead guilty in $5.7M Jamaican lottery scamNews Story
Two more suspects have pleaded guilty in a Jamaican lottery scam that authorities say bilked at least 90 Americans out of more than $5.7 million. O'Neil Brown and Dahlia Hunter earlier reached plea deals with prosecutors. They pleaded guilty to conspiracy in separate hearings this week. The government dropped dozens of fraud and money laundering counts. Seven other defendants have pleaded guilty in recent months, including Hunter's son, Lavrick Willocks, who authorities say masterminded th
Dec 8, 2017, 9:57 pm - Lottery News