Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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All you have to do is pay the fees to release your funds!
The only problem is there is no Jamaican lottery!
This story from the Associated Press in Fox News in April 2012, and this story in the Orlando Sentinel from 2009 point out that "Americans sent more than $30 million to this Caribbean island" each year to claim winnings in a Jamaican lottery. The trouble is there was no such contest.
Below are several reports and descriptions of the scam.
But first, heed this advice, from a police Sherriff in this report, who says:
"There are three things you should look for when it comes to lottery scams like this one.
First, if you did not enter a lottery, you did not win one.
Second, (playing in) foreign lotteries is illegal in the United States.
Third, it is illegal for an agency to require a winner of a prize to pay in order to receive their compensation."
This is a very popular scam with the Jamaican scammers right now. Consumer affairs advocat, Clark Howard, is warning about this scam, too!
My husband just took a phone call we strongly suspect is a typical telephone scam: please check it out!
The call came in about 9:55 am. A man with a heavy Jamaican accent told my husband, whom he called, "Doctor Emanuel Solon" (a retired PhD, bench chemist, rarely uses that title, although it appears on a few mailing labels) won some international sweepstakes prize, or something like that. To claim it, he was instructed to call 1-876-577-2168, which we learned afterward is in Jamaica. Claim number BF2885296.
We do not plan to call this Jamaican number, but hope you will check it out! And if indeed it is a scam, as we suspect, shut it down.
I wish to report a PHONE scam rather than an email one. Over the past several months, I have received several voice messages from a Jamaican-sounding woman calling herself "Jeannine Price" who claims to be from Jamaica Civic Aviation. She leaves me an urgent message to call her at 876/960-3948 ext 4155. She leaves no details or explanation, simply the statement that the call is urgent.
Fortunately, I checked on the "876" number rather than returning any of those calls & saw that this is a hot-line number for phone fraud. Please add this number to your scam list.
I have received calls on my cell phone from a Jamaican phone number 1-876-352-0633, supposedly a Mr. Anthony Washington, announcing that I won 1.5 million dollars from American International Winners Circle. When I asked how I could have won, he said it was from paying my bills on time and shopping at Wal-Mart. Yeah. Right. He asked how I felt about winning and I said I didn't believe it, and furthermore, I had just "Goggled" the organization and it did not exist. Mr. Washington ignored my comments and proceeded to tell me that they would have UPS deliver my check this afternoon, and he gave my correct address at Phone call from JamaicaPhone call from Jamaicaxx, Sarasota, FL 34242 ---- if I would send a payment through wire to their banker, a Mr. Roy, for $550, to cover the customs and taxes; I needed the receipt from that transaction for identification when they brought my check. When I reiterated that I did not believe this, he asked me to call Mr. Roy at 1-876-428-5052. When I said I was not going to call Jamaica, he said that the number was in California. I asked him why I needed to pay customs to send something from California. He insisted that I just call Mr. Roy. At that point I hung up and started this report to you. If this happened on my land line, I would block the numbers, but I called the cell phone company, and my phone does not have that capability, so i will have to ignore the number if they call again.
My father (81 years old) has received a phone call from a man stating his name was Jeff White (had a Jamaican-type accent). He told my father he was the winner of $3,000,000. My sister was on the other line listening to this conversation.
He told my father that he had to send in $700 first in order to receive the $3,000,000. My sister asked the man about fraudulent behavior. The man ignored my sister's comments and continued to direct his comments to my father, 'Mr. Samuel Avakian'. My sister also asked that if this were true, why couldn't they send the check and subtract the $700 from the check. He continued to ignore my sister.
His phone number was an 876 area code number.
When my sister asked to have a contact for a supervisor, he gave a name and number as follows:
Carl Cliff, 876-470-4224
We know this is a scam, but my father is of the older generation where he is trusting and na've about these things and probably willing to send the money if my sister weren't there the time the call was received.
Please help to stop these fraudulent acts, especially against the elderly.
My father-in-law received a call from someone named Glen in Jamaica who told him he was to receive 2.5 million dollars and a Mercedes. My father-in-law told him that his son would call to find out about this. I called today and "Glen" wanted me to get a receipt from western union and wire $475.00 to an "attorney" for the company that is giving this prize away. He said the name of his company is Global International at 303 Carson St, Las Vegas, Nevada. He said the attorney for the company (where I was to wire the money to) is Gaylord Brock at 83 Welle Rd, Crockett, CA 94525. He told me that the prize was to be delivered the next day and that the Marshalls would follow my father-in-law to the bank to cash the 2.5 million dollar check. I talked on the phone to "Glen" for about 20 minutes and he was full of discrepancies and contradictions. I am worried about how much the phone call will cost me. I have no experience with scams like this. Please let me know if this is a scam. Thank You,
Other related pages:
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
* Re: emails of winnings. We know of only ONE exception in the world to this rule - and if you bought a ticket from them, you would know it, and would used their safegaurds.
For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.