Canadian and U.S. officials shut down lottery scams

Nov 19, 2004, 11:49 am (2 comments)

Insider Buzz

Those enticing e-mails and telemarketing calls saying you have won some nation's lottery? They're bogus, folks. Guard your money.

So who is falling for these scams? In most cases, trusting elderly consumers who see this as a chance to leave money to their kids.

The scams have been hard to nail down because they work across national borders, raising jurisdictional hurdles.

But U.S. agents now are working with their foreign counterparts to crack down on the frauds.

Canadian and U.S. investigators said Thursday that they had shut down four such lottery scams that preyed on elderly consumers.

The cross-border investigation is expected to net about $1.5 million in redress for victims of the bogus international lotteries, which bilked consumers with phony fees of $5,000 to $12,000.

The Federal Trade Commission said court actions were filed in both the United States and Canada to freeze assets of the fraudulent operations.

In one case, consumers were told they won the Australian lottery. But to claim their winnings they first had to pay offshore account processing fees.

In two cases, phony telemarketers urged consumers to buy British bonds guaranteed to return huge rewards. The bonds didn't exist.

In a fourth case, consumers were told they had won the Spanish lottery sponsored by that nation's royal family.

The FTC said none of the victims received anything after paying the upfront fees. Buying and selling foreign lottery tickets is illegal in the United States.

Consumer experts said family members should talk with elderly relatives about avoiding lottery scams.

Lottery Post Staff

Tags for this story

Other popular tags

Comments

jeffrey's avatarjeffrey

I'm so tired of these cases. Examples must be made. These people must be caught and given back what they give. They take food from the elderly. Then let them starve in jail and film it. Take everything they have and give it back to these stupid people. Let's have some justice.

CASH Only

People will fall for "Canadian lottery" scams as long as the US taxes lottery prizes.

End of comments
Subscribe to this news story
Guest