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Last defendant in Jamaican lottery scam case going to trialNews Story
A Rhode Island woman accused of funneling lottery scam money between the U.S. and Jamaica through her airline job goes on trial in federal court in North Dakota this week. She is the last of 27 defendants in the case that began seven years ago this month. Here's a look at the case and the upcoming trial of Melinda Bulgin, which is expected to last up to 10 days. Why is this case a big deal? The Federal Trade Commission estimates that lottery scams could be a billion-dollar-a-year industry
Sep 10, 2018, 10:36 pm - Lottery News

Police break up scratch-off lottery ticket burglary ringNews Story
Authorities have arrested three San Jose, California, men and are seeking at least one other suspected of breaking into Bay Area businesses to steal lottery scratch-off tickets. Belmont police Capt. Patrick Halleran said his agency cracked the crime ring with help from the Burlingame, Menlo Park, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno, and San Jose police departments and the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office. The suspects would break into closed businesses in the early morning hours and steal large quan
Aug 17, 2018, 1:07 pm - Lottery News

Man busts through store roof, steals lottery ticketsNews Story
Includes video report By Todd Northrop A thief hoping to steal his way to some good luck busted through the roof of a grocery store and took hundreds of dollars worth of lottery tickets on Wednesday. Ironically, unlucky for him, it was all caught on camera. Surveillance footage captured a fairly clear image of the suspect's face, and after about a day on the run, Kevin Croft, 30, was arrested for the crime by Florida detectives. Croft was booked into the Lee County Jail and faces
Jul 20, 2018, 9:01 am - Lottery News

Oregon man arrested for threatening lotteryNews Story
By Todd Northrop A Lebanon, Oregon, man was arrested after he sent a shooting threat in an e-mail to the Oregon Lottery. The Oregon State Police said Jason David Ouellette, 42, was arrested on suspicion of menacing Tuesday afternoon. 5 hours earlier Ouellette had sent an email to the Lottery's Salem headquarters with an imminent threat to shoot and kill people, the law enforcement agency said. Ouellette was jailed in Marion County without incident, troopers said, but was later released
Jul 13, 2018, 11:51 am - Lottery News

California Lottery issues new rules for retailers after rash of theftsNews Story
Includes video report A rash of thefts of California Lottery tickets in San Jose prompted the state this week to roll out a new system aimed at preventing store owners from paying out purloined scratchers. The new system forbids a practice that had allowed retailers to begin selling tickets before they confirmed that they received their full order of scratchers. A thief or thieves exploited that practice by stealing packages of scratchers en route to retail outlets, according to a June
Jun 22, 2018, 1:00 pm - Lottery News

Sweepstakes, lottery scams cost Americans more than $111 million in 2017News Story
A new study reveals sweepstakes, lottery and prize-related scams cost Americans millions of dollars each year. The Better Business Bureau calls these schemes some of the most serious and pervasive frauds operating today. In the past three years, the group says more than 460,000 Americans have reported losing a total of over $330 million to such scams. The Better Business Bureau says these crooks are professionals. They might take advantage of someone in your family, and they can be very c
Jun 5, 2018, 3:45 pm - Lottery News

Texas lottery winner battled Alzheimer's as daughter stole $250,000News Story
Not long after Austin widow Billie Lawler matched all five numbers in the Mega Millions in 2005, her health began to erode along with her $750,000 prize. She hoped to live out the balance of her life at a high-end Alzheimer's care facility, but was evicted after about a year when she no longer could make the $5,000 monthly rent, prompting a court-ordered investigation that revealed her daughter had burned through her mom's money a crime against the elderly that prosecutors and judges say is c
Jun 3, 2018, 4:28 pm - Lottery News

Connecticut woman stole more than $25K in lottery ticketsNews Story
Police in a small Connecticut town said a former gas station worker in stole more than $25,000 in scratch-off lottery ticket revenue from the business. Juliana Perillo, 55,was charged with first-degree larceny Monday in connection to lottery revenue that went missing from Petro Pat's in Wolcott. She was released on a promise to appear and is next scheduled to appear in court on July 2. Police said Perillo faked numbers on a store log sheet to make it seem like customers had returned their
May 23, 2018, 11:09 am - Lottery News

OOPS: Phone fraudster tries to scam copNews Story
Includes video report A phone scammer made a grave error when he dialed Officer Jeff Bowling and attempted to access his personal information last week. At first, the caller had no clue he was on the line with a cop. Officer Bowling with the Peebles Police Department in Adams County, Ohio, was actually working on the case when he got a call from a strange number that turned out to be a phone scammer. He quickly began to record the conversation, which lasted for 11 minutes. A man on the
May 16, 2018, 2:54 pm - Lottery News

With promise of $1.5m prize, scam artist bilks woman out of nearly $28,000News Story
Vivian Murphy thought back to that heart-stopping moment when the voice on the phone proclaimed her the winner of a $1.5 million sweepstakes prize. For decades, Murphy, 85, had been a huge fan of Publishers Clearing House, the peddler of magazine subscriptions and household items widely known for TV commercials of winners dissolving into happy tears when presented with a gargantuan check. She entered nearly every drawing in the company's 50-year history, during which lucky winners have receiv
May 15, 2018, 8:12 am - Lottery News