Police warn ‘Jamaican lottery’ scam preys on the elderly

There will always be crooks and scam artists. But Robert Corradini said there should be a special place in hell for those whose specialty is preying on the elderly.

Corradini, to his chagrin, has become something of an expert on the subject. His own mother — an 81-year-old Taunton Housing Authority resident who gets by on just more than $1,000 in monthly social security checks — recently fell victim to a scam known as the "Jamaican lottery."

Corradini, 37, lives in South Easton with his wife and children and makes a living as an information technology consultant. His mother, on the other hand, like many other seniors, is not tech-savvy.

"She hardly knows what a mouse is," he said.

But being able to operate a telephone, Corradini says, was all the opportunity needed by the two men with whom she’d spoken on the phone — at least 100 times from the end of January to the beginning of March, in his estimation — to convince her to enter a phony $3.5 million sweepstakes.

By the time he’d put an end to the calls, he said, his mother had made wire transfers totaling close to $10,000 via Western Union to Walmarts and Hannaford supermarkets in Myrtle Beach, S.C. and Penbrook Pines, Fla.

Taunton police detective Steven Crowninshield said the women on record as having collected the payments — listed as Marie Chester and Gloria Smith — could have retrieved the cash from any business anywhere in the United States that has an agreement with Western Union.

As for their identities being authentic, well, you might as well forget about that, Crowninshield said.

The men and women in the United States who fleece people like Corradini’s mother take a percentage, or cut, of what they ultimately wire back to Jamaica, he said.

The so-called Jamaican lottery is just one in a long line of either Internet or phone-related scams that attempt to entice people to send money in order to win enormous jackpots — or be rewarded for facilitating an account transfer for an overseas magnate who, in reality, doesn’t exist.

Crowninshield ascribes to a three-part maxim that has become law-enforcement gospel regarding such fraudulent come-ons:

1) If you did not enter a lottery you will not win one;

2) Participating in foreign lotteries while in the U.S. is illegal; and

3) It’s illegal for any agency to require that a prize winner pay anything in order to be compensated.

Crowninshield also strongly urges that anyone receiving a call touting a Jamaican lottery hang up immediately. Otherwise, he said, there’s a risk that you’ll be added to a list of potential easy marks circulated among a network of Jamaican flimflam gangs.

Those gangs, he said, utilize a computer system that automatically and randomly dials phone numbers, including unlisted numbers, throughout the U.S.

Preying on the elderly

Crowninshield says that perhaps the most insidious aspect of such smooth-talking predators is their penchant for targeting the elderly.

Many senior citizens, particularly those like Corradini’s mother who live alone, are especially vulnerable.

"There are a lot of lonely old folks who like to talk on the phone," he said.

Crowninshield said senior citizens, on a whole, are less likely than younger people to hang up quickly on strangers. And that, he said, provides fertile soil for any dedicated and experienced scammer.

He also warns, unless you’re expecting a call from someone in Jamaica, not to accept or return a call with a phone number beginning with 876, which is the local area code for that country.

Robert Corradini said his mother’s circumstance makes her something of an archetype for the kind of person a telephone scam artist looks for.

For one thing, although she resides in a housing authority building with other tenants, she lives in an apartment by herself. And, despite the fact that she’s still capable of driving, he said she’s been exhibiting signs suggesting a form of dementia.

Corradini’s said he’s an only child and that his mother for many years raised him by herself working mainly as a waitress.

"She made sure I got through school," he said.

He found out she might be in trouble when a housing authority employee called to tell him that word had gotten back that his mother had drained her savings account.

Corradini said his mother at one point also managed to secure a $3,000 personal loan from First Citizens Federal Credit Union using her car as collateral. He says he found out that she deposited and then withdrew the total amount, all within the same day.

When he asked the credit union why they had granted her the loan, Corradini says he was told that they considered her to have been "a consenting adult."

Meanwhile, he said, the telephone hustlers had convinced his mother to provide them with her social security number and other personal information, which they then used to open three credit cards under her name.

After getting the cards in the mail, Corradini said she used them to withdraw cash from automatic teller machines. The money then was brought to Western Union to be wired to her U.S.-based handlers.

"I finally got it through her head that she was not getting (the $3.5 million jackpot)," he said.

Corradini said he established power of attorney regarding his mother’s affairs, had her phone number changed, destroyed the credit cards and gave her a debit card with a finite balance of cash available any given time.

"I’ve done everything possible to make sure it doesn’t happen again," he said.

Corradini said his mother’s misfortune should be a cautionary tale to other sons and daughters of elderly parents.

"I tell my story to everyone now," he said. "I know we’ll never get the money back, but it’s the principle, knowing that they took advantage of a woman like that."

Out of reach of police

Crowninshield said overseas money vultures, such as those engaging in the Jamaican lottery, know that they are largely out of reach of American law enforcement.

It’s simple, he said, for them to purchase disposable cell phones that typically have a life span of 60 hours and are all but impossible to trace. He also laments the fact that the FBI has a $1 million minimum for overseas fraud investigations.

Robert Corradini, however, said that he still intends to contact the FBI’s local field office: "I think it’s worth a try," he said.

Corradini has provided Taunton police with two phone numbers and names he says are part of the gang that misled and defrauded his mother.

A voicemail message left by a reporter for one of them, identified as Cassandra Stone, was not returned. But a call to the other number, an 876 exchange listed as being assigned to one Jim James, did result in a brief exchange.

"I’m in New York City, and I’m a very wealthy man. I don’t have time for this," a fairly distinguished sounding man with a slight Jamaican accent said, with the voices of children audible in the background.

Asked if he knew anything about a Jamaican lottery scam that takes advantage of elderly people, he said, "I don’t have time for foolishness; tell the police to come and see me."

"We have everything under control, so do what you want," he added.

And when asked how authorities might contact him in New York, he was curt: "They’re the police. They should know."