Newark Police warn of lottery scam after woman duped out of hundreds of dollars

Sometimes you have to stick with the classics and that appears to be something that is happening in New Jersey, as police are warning citizens about a lottery scam taking place recently.

The lottery scam

According to police in Newark, the victim was at the Citizen Bank branch on Lafayette Street (formerly an Investors Bank branch), New Jersey 101.5 reported.

Outside of the branch, the woman claimed she was approached by two men who claimed they had recently won the lottery. However, they said they were having some issues with claiming their winnings, and they begged her to help them out.

The guilt worked on her, as she agreed to help them, so she went into the bank and withdrew $385 dollars and then gave it to the suspects. The two men took the money and just ran away, police said.

Now, the victim becomes suspicious

With the suspects taking her money and running away, the victim now becomes suspicious of what just happened. She went back inside the bank and reported the incident to bank employees, who then called police.

The victim was uninjured during the incident, but she is definitely out the $385 now.

The Newark Police are asking anyone who might know about the incident to contact them.

No new scam here

This lottery scam is definitely not anything new. However, people normally don't do it in person. Instead, they do it through a phone call or email or text phishing.

Oftentimes, the scammer will contact a person and state they won the lottery, but they need money to claim the big prize. If you just happen to help them out with that money, then they will share the prize with you.

A very common lottery scam is to say you won a lottery prize, but you need to pay a processing fee before you can claim it. You send them money for that fee and the jackpot will be yours!

The victims are often instructed to wire money to the scammer, but providing gift cards is a newer concept they have introduced recently.

Fighting scams with the New Jersey Lottery

While scammers are persistent, they know most people dream of winning big in the lottery. Because of that, these scams can be very effective, especially for elderly victims.

With that in mind, the New Jersey Lottery is warning people to never respond to these communications and never provide any information or send any money to a scammer.

The New Jersey Lottery has also provided a list of warning signs that you may be dealing with a scammer:

• The New Jersey Lottery doesn't know who won the lottery until the winner comes forward with their winning ticket.
• The New Jersey Lottery will never ask for a payment of any kind in order to claim a prize.
• You should never send any money to pay a “processing fee” or any other requested fee in order to claim your prize.
• You should never deposit a check that was sent to you that is accompanied by a request for you to send or wire money to cover processing or claiming fees. That check you received is fraudulent and will bounce.
• You should never give any personal or financial information to a scammer, especially Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers.

If you have been the victim of an attempted scam, you should report it to the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP or at the FTC Consumer Information website.

Enjoy playing the New Jersey Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.