Police warn of lotto scam

Friday, March 03, 2006 posted 12:48 PM EST

PERRY - A Perry woman recently lost $1,500 in a bogus Canadian lottery scam.

Her loss and two other complaints last week involving the same type of scam prompted Perry police Thursday to issue a consumer warning: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

"It's totally bogus," Sgt. Ken Ezell, a Perry police detective, said of the lottery ploy.

The other Perry residents didn't fall for the scam but notified police instead, Ezell said.

The latest scam comes in the form of what purports to be a winning lotto check, he said.

The check, which looks real, arrives in the mail accompanied by a letter saying the addressee has won $6,000 or some other large sum in the Canadian or some other foreign lottery, Ezell said.

The letter says all one has to do to cash in the winnings is to wire in a couple thousand dollars as an insurance, export or some other bogus fee, Ezell said.

Once duped, the would-be lotto winner is out any cash that was transferred and possibly liable for attempting to cash a fake or forged check, Ezell said.

Besides, it's a violation of federal law for a U.S. citizen to participate in a foreign lottery, he said.

Senior citizens are most often targeted by these scams, Ezell said.

For more on the scams, Ezell recommended a visit to the Federal Trade Commission's Web site at www.ftc.gov

Related Links
	Lottery News & Stories
	Latest Results
	Search Past Winning Numbers