When things seem too good to be true, they usually are.
That was the first thought for a retired New York City Transit cop when a woman called and told him he had won $17 million and a new Mercedes in a well-known sweepstakes.
But what if, the former policeman contemplated, there’s that slim chance that it’s indeed true?
After all, the pleasant woman on the phone said she was calling from Publishers Clearing House, a legitimate firm famous for its enormous prize-package giveaways. And all the winner would have to do is send a $600 “registration fee” to claim his jackpot.
Though he wrestled with the decision briefly, the 82-year-old retiree who lives in Suffolk County sent the money, thinking that the promised windfall could go a long way towards financial independence for his entire family.
Instead, by sending the requested payment, Leonard (not his real name) branded himself a vulnerable mark who was about to become a serial target of a ruthless group of foreign lottery scammers.
Throughout 2021 and most of 2022, the calls became constant and the schemes more elaborate. In one instance, Leonard was told he had $17.5 million in a Las Vegas bank, but it was on hold until he paid an “FDIC insurance fee” of $17,000.
“They gave me a phone number for Bank of America in Las Vegas with a pin number and everything,” Leonard told LIBN. “I sent them $9,000.”
Told he won $8.5 million in the American Dream Sweepstakes, Leonard followed the scammer’s instructions and shipped $20,000 in cash to a Florida address. They also milked $90,000 from his two stock trading accounts.
Unfortunately, as sometimes happens to the elderly, the years have diminished Leonard’s critical thinking abilities, something the scammers count on. Despite plenty of money going out and nothing coming in, Leonard was fooled over and over. All in all, Leonard estimates he lost at least $200,000.
“They start out asking for a few hundred dollars and then they sink their teeth into you,” he said. “You try to be honest with people and you hope they’re honest with you.”
On the case
Since the money, usually in the form of cash, gift cards and money orders, is sent by victims through the mail, investigators for the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) are tasked with trying to track down the scammers and attempt to bring them to justice. But because the crooks are well versed in the law and mostly based out of the country, it’s often like chasing ghosts.
“It’s organized crime,” said a retired federal agent contracted to work with the USPIS, who asked not to be named for security reasons and to maintain the integrity of ongoing investigations.
He explained that the scammers work in teams that could have dozens of people, led by the foreign-based phone callers and supported by co-conspirators known as “mules” who reside in the U.S. Once the callers hook a victim, the mules, who are often friends or family of the head scammer, receive the money at various addresses, bank accounts or P.O. boxes.
Many of the lottery scams originate in Jamaica, as the Caribbean nation has long been a hotbed for the fraud. Federal agents estimate that as much as $500 million is bilked by Jamaican lottery scammers every year.
They often use voice-over internet protocol (VOIP) that makes the calls appear to be from a local number. They can also use software that alters their voices and masks their accents.
Investigators say the scammers use psychological manipulation, preying on the emotions of their elderly victims, many of whom are lonely and look forward to their calls.
“A lot of these are long cons,” said the contracted investigator. “They’re chameleons. They try and befriend you.”
Knock, knock
Once the scammers believe they’ve landed a gullible victim, they go to great lengths to keep the scheme going. When victims stop answering the calls, they send mules to their homes, sometimes even using wellness checks by local police to reconnect.
After Leonard’s son took away his cell phone to try to limit the carnage, the scammers sent an Uber driver to Leonard’s home to deliver a new phone, on which they promptly continued to call him.
“They kept on hounding me. They’re really persistent,” Leonard said. “How many times are you going to get slapped in the face until you realize you got slapped in the face?”
But sometimes, scam victims refuse to realize they’re being conned. That’s been the case with an 80-year-old Nassau County woman we’ll call Laura, who continued to send bank checks and gift cards to the scammers even after she was warned by family members and law enforcement that she was being taken.
It all began in 2021 when Laura filled out a puzzle contest that came in the mail and sent it in. Not long after, she got a call from someone who told her she had won $12 million in a sweepstakes and assigned her an agent to take her through the process, which of course, involved her sending money to him.
Once she did, the frequency of the calls increased, and Laura kept making trips to her bank to withdraw money and mail bank checks ranging from $10,000 to $30,000 to different addresses on the East Coast.
At one point, a clerk at Laura’s local post office alerted USPIS investigators, who intercepted several of the checks and returned them to her. But even after family members and postal officials stepped in, she sent more checks.
When Laura’s nephew, who asked not to be identified, became her power of attorney, he had the banks freeze her accounts to try and stop the bleeding. But then she began buying gift cards and would read the card numbers to the scammers over the phone.
Eventually, Laura’s nephew said the scammers got into her phone and computer, so when you dialed her number, the calls were forwarded to the scammers. After her nephew changed Laura’s computer equipment, one of the scammer’s mules came to her home posing as a cable company employee and regained control over her computer.
So far, Laura’s nephew estimates she has lost “far more than $200,000” in the long-running con. He says his aunt, a former public-school administrator with a Masters degree, has experienced some memory loss in recent years and stubbornly clings to the notion that he and law enforcement officials are only trying to keep her from collecting her sweepstakes jackpot.
“Everyone has told her that this is a scam, and these are bad people, but she says she knows what’s she’s doing,” said her nephew. “It won’t stop because she’s compliant.”
Long arm of the law
While troubling, USPIS investigators say Laura’s case is not that unusual. Victims are often coached by scammers to lie to their families and to keep quiet about their pursuits of sweepstakes and lottery jackpots.
“Sometimes when we contact them to say they’re being scammed they don’t believe us,” said the veteran investigator. “That’s because the scammers have warned them that law enforcement or family will try to keep them from collecting their prize. They paint us as the bad guys.”
Still, the USPIS and its intelligence network try to stop the scams when they’re able, saving victims millions of dollars a year, though tracking the perpetrators and bringing them to justice is daunting because of their offshore locations.
“They think they’re immune from prosecution, but they can be extradited,” said the USPIS-contracted investigator.
Earlier this year, in fact, a Jamaican national named Adrian Lawrence was arrested in Panama and extradited to the U.S. where he was charged with conspiracy, mail fraud and wire fraud, in connection with alleged lottery scams that took more than $5.6 million from at least 50 victims, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York.
The USPIS spearheaded the pursuit of Lawrence, who allegedly told victims that they had won sweepstakes from Publishers Clearing House and federal agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission. To facilitate the release of the phantom prizes, Lawrence allegedly told the victims, the average age of whom was 81, that they needed to wire-transfer money to various bank accounts that co-conspirators established at bank branches in the U.S., and to mail checks and cash to Lawrence’s co-conspirators throughout the country.
Warning signs
While the USPIS and local law enforcement are formidable combatants in the fight against lottery scams, officials say family is always the first line of defense, and knowing the warning signs is critical in preventing potential financial ruin.
Investigators say family members should look for changes in behavior of their older relatives. Red flags include them receiving incessant phone calls and finding excessive mail around their residences. They should also look for bank withdrawal receipts, retail receipts for gift cards and the gift cards themselves.
One of the best defenses, according to investigators, is to advise relatives to not answer their phone if they don’t recognize the number and let the call go to voicemail. Once elderly relatives understand they’ve been duped, they’re often extremely embarrassed, which makes it harder for family members to find out what’s really happening to them.
“Don’t attack your loved one when you learn about it,” cautions the senior USPIS investigator. “Because they may not open up to the full extent of the crime.”
As part of its ongoing efforts to educate the public, the USPIS coordinates with local law enforcement to share its fraud-fighting prevention tips at town halls and forums at area libraries, assisted living facilities and nursing homes.
When it comes to preventing this type of fraud, the investigators say there’s one important rule to follow: You never have to pay to collect a prize. But once any money has been sent, investigators advise that victims preserve their records and contact the USPIS and local authorities.
After he finally realized he was a scam victim, Leonard turned over a box full of receipts and gift cards to USPIS investigators. In the wake of losing his life savings, he laments falling prey to the callous lottery scammers and wants to warn others.
“They know you’re on Social Security and Social Security doesn’t pay that much and your pension doesn’t pay that much, and the cost of living keeps going up, so they know you need the money,” Leonard said. “They throw millions at you from Mega Millions, Publishers Clearing House and Powerball, and hope that you’ll bite the bait. Now I’m in debt and I want to get out. The scams will continue. These guys don’t quit.”
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