Latin Lotto Scam
Latin Lotto Street Scam
Two Hispanic males, along with a Hispanic female, have been involved
in numerous "Latin Lotto Scams" in New York in which
victims have lost over $96,000.
One will target a victim, then convince you that he holds a winning
lottery ticket but can not cash it, as he is an illegal immigrant.
The other will approach and offer assistance to the two persons
involved (victim and suspect). He will convince you to either
purchase the lottery ticket or cash it in for the other suspect. So
believable is the tale that you forget it is easy to verify winning
tickets at any lottery retailer, including grocery and convenience
stores.
The suspects will usually take the victim to his bank to obtain
funds to buy the ticket at a discount and then quickly exchange
the worthless ticket for your money. One will then fake a sudden
sickness and ask you to go into a store to obtain medicine for
them, while they rest.
Once you are out of the vehicle, usually a rental, the two suspects
will flee, leaving you feeling sick for real.
Elsewhere, two women in Florida recently lost $14,000 in the scam. Manuela
Sanchez, 26, was conned out of $9,000 by a Hispanic woman
who pulled the scam on her while Dalys Baum, 57, was scammed out
of $5,000 by a Hispanic man who also claimed to have a winning
lottery ticket. No arrests have been made in either case.
Women lose tens of thousands in latin lotto scam claiming to have winning lottery tickets
10/03 - (California) - Con artists have used a lottery scam to bilk tens of thousands
of dollars from two women over the past two days, Salinas
police say.
In both cases, police say the con artists claim to
have winning lottery tickets and offer the victims
a cut of the fortune -- after they put up their own
cash as a sign of good faith. They say it's unclear
whether the crimes are related.
"This is a classic," said Terry Spitz, chief
assistant Monterey County district attorney. "We've
been hearing of this, or variations of it, for years."
Salinas police offered the following accounts:
The first rip-off took place about 4:25 p.m. Wednesday
on the 1000 block of North Davis Road.
The 62-year-old victim, who was in the parking lot
of Orchard Supply Hardware, was approached by a woman
who claimed she'd won the lottery. She claimed to need
help redeeming her ticket, saying she was from Costa
Rica and in the country illegally. She said she needed
to find an attorney.
The woman then was joined by a man who volunteered
to help. The woman produced the lottery ticket with
a phone number on the back.
The man called the number and passed the phone to
the victim. She heard the voice of a man on the other
end who was posing as a lottery official. He said the
winner needed to produce identification and two witnesses
to claim the winnings.
For her to help, they told the victim she needed to
show they could trust her and put up $25,000. For her
trouble, she'd get $3,000 of the winnings.
The victim only withdrew $20,000 from her bank account,
and the woman swindler volunteered to supply the remaining
$5,000.
All the money was supposed to be put into a bag for
the victim to hang onto.
The second scam happened about 2:15 p.m. Thursday
near Factory 2-U on the 1500 block of North Main Street.
An older man approached a 42-year-old shopper and told
her he had a winning ticket. Another customer then
offered to go in halves to redeem it.
The victim was taken to her bank, where she withdrew
a large, unspecified sum of cash. She then was asked
to hold an envelope containing everybody's money.
They asked her then to go into a store and buy some
other items, and when she looked inside the envelope,
she found a rolled-up newspaper. When she returned
to the parking lot, the scammers were gone.
"If (folks) are approached by people with something
that's too good to be true, it's just that," Gerhardstein
said. "They should call us immediately."
The man on the phone told the victim she needed to
purchase some stamps at the post office before to going
to San Jose to claim the prize. After she was dropped
off at the post office, the suspects fled with the
$20,000 in a newer gold, four-door Chevy sedan.
The woman was left holding the bag, literally. Inside
was nothing but folded up paper.
"It works on people's sense of being able to
get something for free," Salinas police Sgt. Terry
L. Gerhardstein said of the scam. "You get nothing
for free."
The woman swindler appeared to be 30-35 years old,
5-foot-7, with black hair and brown eyes. The man appeared
to be 40-45 years old, 5-foot-5, 200 pounds, with black
and gray hair.
Anyone with information about two lottery scams this week
is asked to call Salinas police at 758-7250
(The Californian)
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
02/04 - A 59-year-old Texan woman was conned out of $5,000 by
two people who approached the woman and said they needed help cashing
a lottery ticket.
The victim was shopping at a store on Main Street in Lewisville
when a woman told the victim that she was from out of town and
looking for the offices of Christian Community Action (CCA) to
help her find an apartment. A man working in connection with the
woman also was shopping nearby and joined the conversation.
The female suspect went on to say that she was from Peru and staying
locally with people who weren't American citizens, and she wouldn't
need CCA's help to find an apartment if she could cash a winning
lottery ticket. She said the winning ticket was good for
$200,000, but that she couldn't cash it because she wasn't a U.S.
citizen. The male then offered to call and check on how they could
claim the ticket.
The person on the phone then said that it could be claimed by
sending in a $10,000 bond for each of the two people who would
be claiming the ticket, Douglass said. The perpetrators agreed
to contribute $15,000 to the effort, and the victim said she would
give the remaining $5,000.
The three then drove to the bank in the victim's car to get the
money out. The male suspect handed the victim a sealed bank envelope,
which was put with the victim's money, and the female suspect's
cash into a mailing envelope. They decided to drive to the post
office, but on the way the male suspect said he needed to stop
at a local grocery store, which they did. After some time, the
female suspect said she would go and find him, and left the car
with the mailing envelope and money.
Latin Lotto Scam Con Artists Arrested
04/02/04 - California - ( SFGate.com ) San
Jose police have arrested a pair of alleged con artists who may
be part of a rash of lottery scams that have singled out Latinos
in the South Bay and on the Peninsula.
Officers arrested Ruth Burgos-Rivera, 44, and Carlos Serrano,
25, both of Miami Beach, Fla., in East San Jose on Monday morning
after receiving a call from a woman who told police the pair were
trying to obtain money from her elderly father, police said.
Detective Fred Mills said the suspects already had taken $15,000
from the Spanish-speaking man when they returned for more money
Monday morning.
Mills said there have been about 12 similar cases in the past
year in San Jose and several others in Mountain View, San Mateo
and Salinas. He said investigators are trying to determine if Burgos-Rivera
and Serrano are suspects in the other scams.
Both suspects were arraigned on charges of fraud, grand theft
and elder abuse and remain in county jail on $100,000 bail each.
Latin lottery ticket scam takes third Spanish
victim for $6,000
By Layla Bohm - News-Sentinel Staff Writer
04/23/04 - CA - A Stockton woman has become the third to tell
Lodi police that she was the victim of a lottery scam that bilks
thousands of dollars from older, Hispanic women.
The 74-year-old woman, whom police Detective Leo Ramirez did not identify
because the woman is embarrassed, was so convinced by the deal that she
gave the suspects $6,000.
The woman, Ramirez said, was shopping in Wal-Mart when a Hispanic
woman approached her, asking for directions to a local store. The
victim had never heard of the store, but the suspect kept asking.
Then a man appeared, saying he knew of the business. In the process,
the suspect woman said she had a secret: She had a winning $33,000 lottery
ticket, but couldn't cash it in because she was an undocumented resident.
She and the man convinced the victim to "go halves" with the
man to buy the lottery ticket, then cash it in, Ramirez said.
So the woman went to her bank, withdrew $6,000, and gave it to the people.
They convinced her they needed to go to another store, and when the victim
went in the store, the other two people vanished -- with her money.
What the victim didn't know was that California State Lottery rules dictate
that anyone may cash in a ticket, regardless of residency.
And, the victim also didn't know that she's not the first Hispanic woman
to be targeted in Lodi. Ramirez is still investigating two similar cases,
and he thinks there may be more.
In each case, the victims and suspects spoke Spanish, and there were
at least two suspects -- though the male suspect arrived later and pretended
he did not know the other suspect, Ramirez said.
Police warn of local winning number lottery scam
05/28/04 - CA - Authorities are asking area residents to be on
the alert for a Hispanic man and woman who are using a lottery
scam to bilk people out of large sums of money.
Officials say the couple approach people in parking lots and ask for
assistance in cashing a winning lottery ticket. The suspects reportedly
say they cannot claim the prize because of their immigration status.
Over the past weeks, the couple have convinced a number of victims
to withdraw large amounts of money from their bank or savings accounts.
The suspects then distracted the victims, took their cash and fled.
Officials are asking local residents to be aware of their surroundings
when going to or from their vehicles. Additionally, people are urged
to use caution when accepting or offering assistance to strangers.
(The Porterville Recorder)
San Mateo police seek pair linked to winning number Latin lotto scam
01/06 - SAN MATEO - The San Mateo Police Department is searching
for two people who have reportedly scammed several San Mateo County
residents out of more than $50,000 by claiming to be the winners
of a lottery, San Mateo Police Lt. Tom Daughtry said today.
Police report that the scam involves one person approaching Spanish-speaking
elderly persons outside a retail store and telling them they won
a lottery but that they need help cashing the winning ticket.
A second person often poses as a stranger who becomes involved
in the scam in order to give it a greater sense of legitimacy,
Daughtry reported.
The scammers then stage a phony call to a lottery official to
confirm that the ticket is a winner, he said.
The scammers accompany the victim to another location, sometimes
a bank, and promise to share their winnings with those willing
to put up good-faith money.
Once the scammers have the victim's money they organize some type
of distraction and leave the victim empty-handed, according to
police.
In November 2005, a 68-year-old San Mateo woman was similarly
defrauded of about $15,000, the department reported.
According to Daughtry, the pair have scammed about a half-dozen
San Mateo County residents.
Bay City News Service
Winning number lottery scam costs Greenlawn woman $7,000
01/08 - NY - The title of a Wednesday news release from Suffolk
County police detectives says it all: "Lottery scam still
raking in victims."
Now Second Squad detectives have released a bank surveillance
photo of a man they say is one of a group of con artists who tricked
a Greenlawn woman into handing over $7,000.
The detectives are asking the public's help in tracking down the
alleged scammer, who is shown in the photo at a bank teller's window.
The swindle revolved around a purported $340 million lottery ticket
that turned out, of course, to be bogus.
It started at 3 p.m. on Jan. 7 when the Greenlawn woman, 21, was
waiting for a bus on Jericho Turnpike in Commack. She was approached
by a woman who asked for directions, and as they talked a small
maroon car stopped nearby. Inside the car were another woman and
a man, who started a conversation with the first woman.
At this point, the trap was laid.
"The first woman had a piece of paper in her hand and said
it was a winning lottery ticket worth $340 million. The woman said
she needed to pay $15,000 in taxes in order to pick up the cash," a
Second Squad detectives' report said.
"The man said he could raise $8,000 and asked if the victim
could get the other $7,000," the report said.
"The woman with the ticket agreed to split the $340 million
with them. They drove to the Astoria Savings Bank in Huntington
and withdrew the $7,000."
The victim gave the money to the man, and that's the last she
saw of her cash -- or of the three swindlers, who immediately drove
off, police said.
The man in the photo was described as in his 40s, about 5 feet
7 inches, with a heavy build.
Newsday.com
Latin Lotto Fake Winning Number Lottery Ticket Scam
05/06 - (New York) - Area residents are urged to be wary of tricksters playing confidence games in the 114th Police Precinct.
On Thursday, May 11, a complainant walked into the precinct on Astoria Boulevard South and 34th Street, stating she was approached by someone who was asking for help in finding an address.
This person then offered the victim a winning lottery ticket in exchange for money and jewelry. The victim gave this person $580 in currency and approximately $30,000 in jewelry.
In return, she was given a bag that turned out to be full of paper. She later discovered the lottery ticket was a fraud.
More lottery scam info at:
Latin Lotto Scam Warning, Lottery Scams, Lotto Fraud, Nigerian Lottery Scams, Fake Lottery Tickets, Jamaican Lottery Scams.
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