The Jamaican Lottery Scam

For many years the Lottery Scam has operated in Jamaica. It is a rather straight forward crime.

People who work at Data Centres get lists of American Citizens who, for example, have subscriptions to magazines. The clerks take a copy of these lists. It has a lot of pertinent information. The Scammer will pay $2,500.00 (Jamaican) for the list.

He ignores those Americans under sixty, focuses on the oldest persons on the list. He buys cheap cell phones and hires five women, whom he pays a daily salary. Each woman is given five entries on the list. She calls the phone numbers of each of her 'marks' and says; "Congratulations! You have won the Jamaican Lottery!"

The orignal scam grew out of the Montego Bay Police Station. Yes, you read that right.

For after the calls are made and the mark told he has won millions of dollars, he must send an amount to cover the 'taxes'.

Originally, the 'taxes' the mark would pay were often under Ten Thousand United States Dollars to clear how many millions of dollars. The mark would send this sum via Western Union, it would be collected.

After a week of hearing nothing, a call would be made to that number from the Montego Bay Police Station, telling the mark he had been ripped off and that there was no Lottery. He was told that the next time he was called to send more money, he was to do so, and give the Police the details so that they could arrest the person who came to collect it.

The mark might be unsure, and the Police give him the number of the Police Station and claim he was Sargeant Brown. The Mark would call the number, reach the Montego Bay Police Station, ask for Sargeant Brown, and be connected.

This 'proved' that the Police were on the case, and so the mark would wait, get a call from the 'scammer' take down the details, contact Sergeant Brown, who would advise him when to send that next tranch, and call him immediately.

The mark would do as told

Hence, that was two payments which would be gone forever.

This first scam was soon stopped, but the scam progressed without the police involvement.

People in America, especially the seniors, were of the belief that the Lottery was legitimate. So, thousands sent money after that first "You Won!" call.

The American government put pressure on Jamaica to come down hard on the Lottery Scam. After invalidating VISAs, holding back on promised Aid, the Jamaican Police created a special squad, put cameras in all Western Unions, as well as under cover agents.

Every week, some times two or three times in a week, people are arrested for Lottery Scamming. That Americans continue to send money to the Scammers, despite all the publicity is just beyond belief.

By The Way, There never was a Jamaican Lottery.

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