CPB Announces Winner of the Latest International Sweepstakes: Nobody

More than 400 New Yorkers fall for phony lotteries and sweepstakes scams in the past seven months

More than 400 New Yorkers have fallen victim to sweepstakes and lottery scams in the past seven months with losses ranging from a few hundred dollars to more than $35,000, according to an analysis by the New York State Consumer Protection Board (CPB).

While elderly people lost the most money, lottery scams also tricked younger people into believing they had won a large cash prize from a foreign lottery or sweepstakes.

In each case, the victims sent money – usually to Canada -- thinking they had to pay insurance or taxes before they could collect these bogus prizes.

"No legitimate contest makes you pay a fee to collect a prize," said CPB Chairperson and Executive Director Teresa A. Santiago. "For many of the elderly victims, the scam artists made multiple demands for cash, falsely claiming that more money was needed in order to pay for 'taxes' or insurance.

Sons and daughters have filed complaints after failing to convince their elderly parent that there was no prize.

"You can't win a contest that you didn't enter. But it's hard to convince someone that they are the victim of a scam, especially when the con artists have made numerous phone calls and formed a bond with the victim," said Chairperson Santiago.

"Elderly victims will receive phone call after phone call or multiple letters and emails, each promising that the large cash prize will soon be delivered," said Chairperson Santiago. "But there's always another delay and always a demand for another payment."

Another common scam involves the mailing of a bogus check. The recipient is told to deposit the check in their bank and then wire a smaller amount back to the scam artists. Several days later, the bogus check bounces and the victim's money is gone.

Once someone loses money in a lottery scam, their name, address, phone numbers and other personal information are sold, leaving these consumers vulnerable to another scam. Many people, especially senior citizens, have been victimized by more than one sweepstakes scam, according to the CPB.

"The only way you can win with these phony contests is to not respond to them," said Chairperson Santiago.


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Authorities Wednesday warned Southern California residents about a widespread scam in which residents receive an official-looking letter and a printed "check" naming them as sweepstakes winners.

Police have been receiving three to five reports a week about the scam letters, Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon said.

"The letter asks the `winner' to send a cashier's check back to the sweepstakes company, which promises more cash once a `non-residence tax' is paid up-front," Los Angeles police Lt. Paul Vernon said.

The printed checks, although realistic-looking, are phony, Vernon said.

In one case, a man in the West Adams area received a letter telling him he won $75,000, with a phony $2,700 check enclosed. The man mailed back a real cashier's check for $2,580 -- to cover the so-called tax.

The letterhead on the "winner's notice” read "Metropolitan Clearinghouse" of Manassas, Va.

Most of the frauds have been uncovered when police are notified that "winners" are trying to cash bogus checks at check-cashing businesses, many of them in low-income areas, Vernon said.

Some recent recipients have admitted to police that they knew the letter was a scam, but tried to cash the enclosed checks anyway, according to Vernon.

"At first, we were not prosecuting these persons, as they are victims," Vernon said. "But more recently, we have arrested several recipients who approached check-cashing stores trying to pass the checks, even after they were told the checks were no good."

Detectives urged anyone receiving suspicious-looking sweepstakes letters to call police


http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_256162700.html

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04:32 PM CDT on Thursday, September 21, 2006

By DONNA FIELDER / Denton Record-Chronicle

The man from the “IRS” told the 89-year-old Denton woman to “get all pretty” because her picture would be taken when he presented her with her $500,000 check from the Canadian lottery – and at the same time, collect another $2,000 from her for taxes.

The woman already had wired $21,800 to take care of taxes and fees connected with her big win.

There was no lottery win. That money is gone.

But an alert bank teller questioned the woman about the $2,000 withdrawal she was trying to make Wednesday and called police. That afternoon when the man who claimed to be an IRS agent called, he talked to Denton police Detective Brandon Hobon. He hastily hung up the phone.

“They’re telling me this is not legitimate,” said the woman, who asked that she not be identified. “It makes you want to throw up.”

The lottery scam is only one of the many ways criminals are parting innocent people from their money, Hobon said. They also are using job Web sites to lure people looking for honest employment into loosing their cash. Hobon specializes in such crime, and he is seeing more and more, he said.

Three or four different men apparently worked the elaborate fraud against the elderly woman. She told Hobon she first received a call notifying her she was the second-place winner of the Canadian lottery and would receive $200,000. She needed to pay American taxes on it, she was told, and another man who said he was an IRS agent contacted her with instructions on how to wire the money.

Then came more requests for more money via Western Union, and then the good news that the first-place winner had not claimed the prize, so she would win $500,000. Of course, that necessitated her paying more fees and taxes, Hobon said.

The woman made nine wire transfers for nearly $22,000 before Hobon found her.

“He called yelling at her for not sending the money while I was there,” Hobon said. “When I took over the telephone and told him I was her son, he said he would have me arrested for interfering with an IRS agent. I told him my name and that he could find me at the Denton Police Department and he hung up.”

Once money is handed over to the Western Union it cannot be retrieved, the detective said. The sender is given a reference number and all it takes to collect the wired cash is that number.

So even if the sender wires cash to a person in Canada, someone in Dallas or Nigeria who had the number could collect it without even showing identification, he said. It is untraceable.

Another recent target for scammers has been job sites on the Internet.

A Denton man thought he’d been hired for at-home work. He believed he was collecting payments in the U.S. for a foreign company. He received check facsimiles via e-mail, printed them out on special paper available at business stores, and deposited them in his account. Then he wired cash to the company.

The checks were fraudulent, and the man now owes his bank thousands of dollars.

A Denton college student posted her resume on Monster.com, Hobon said. She was contacted by a company in London that wanted to hire her as a “bookkeeper.”

“She received $5,000 in counterfeit American Express checks. She thought she was taking payments for people in the U.S. and wiring it to the English company,” he said. “She did her homework. She found the company Web site on the Internet and it was an elaborate site that looked legitimate.”

She deposited the checks in her own account and wired cash. She now owes her bank $4,000, Hobon said.

Several people recently have received checks in the mail they were not expecting. They found out when the tried to cash them they are forgeries.

Hobon said if you are contacted by anyone, be it by telephone or Internet, who offers a deal that doesn’t ring quite true, it’s better not to put the money in your account or try to cash it. Instead, contact police, he said. Hobon can be reached at 940-349-7994.

E-mail dfielder@dentonrc.com

Source: DallasNews.com

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Last Update: 9/22/2006 8:59:57 PM
This story is available on your cell phone at mobile.9wsyr.com

Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - If you get a check in the mail that looks real, and includes a letter that says you’ve won money, or asks you to cash the check and send some of the cash to Canada, it’s probably a scam.

Syracuse Police say hundreds of people in Central New York are receiving fake checks, cashing them, and then getting in trouble because they aren’t real.

The checks are from different sources, but oftentimes come with a letter that asks the recipient to cash the check, and then wire a portion of the funds to a payment center in Canada to help pay for taxes or some other bogus fee.

Some of the letters even ask for your private information, which they use to get into your bank account, and steal your cash.

You can be criminally charged if you cash one of these checks, and if you know it’s a fake. Even if you’re not criminally charged, you will be financially charged for bouncing a check.

If you get one of these letters, write “fraudulent” on it, and hand it back to your letter carrier.


Source: 9wsyr

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