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Israeli Lottery Scam Artists Arrested: They Cheated New Yorkers Out of $2 Million

A criminal ring located in Tel Aviv that targeted U.S. senior citizens in a telemarketing lottery scam was broken up last Friday by Israeli police, assisted by U.S. agents, reported the Jerusalem Post newspaper.

According to police records, the Israelis conned mainly New York seniors out of more than $2 million.

The crooks worked out of a “boiler room” in Israel, where they cold called seniors, convincing them to wire as much as $40,000 to Israel to claim nonexistent sweepstakes prizes.

According to the Post, the scam artists targeted senior citizens, who were told that the calls were coming from a New York law firm and that the wire transfers were taxes and fees that needed to be paid before the winnings could be released, according to a police complaint charge sheet issued in Manhattan federal court.

More than 10 victims were given a US toll-free number to call and told not to tell anyone about the prize drawing, prosecutors said.

This is a very typical lottery scam.

The money was allegedly wired via Western Union to accounts at Bank Leumi, Bank Hapoalim and Union Bank between September 2007 and this month, said the police complaint sheet.

It was the largest number of Israelis ever held on a single extradition request.

“Cooperation between law enforcement and prosecutors’ offices here and in Israel has made clear that borders provide no safe haven for such fraudulent schemes,” Michael Garcia, the US attorney for the Southern District of New York.

The Tel Aviv Fraud Division of the Israel Police, the Justice Ministry and the Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office all participated in the investigation.

The suspects were detained by Israeli authorities on September 9 and 11.

If they are sent to the US, each defendant will face two counts of committing wire fraud through telemarketing and one of conspiracy to commit fraud. They could be sentenced up to 30 years in prison if convicted of all charges.

One suspect, named Shai Kadosh, is still at large, police said.

In my upcoming book on Lotteries I devote an entire chapter on scams and how to avoid them. Senior citizens, unfortunately, are the all too often targets of these criminals.

It is one of my main goals, to keep an eye out for scams.

To keep you safe.

We all love playing the lottery. Unfortunately, there are criminals out there ruining it all, preying on the unsuspecting.

If you think you are being scammed, please let me know and I’ll investigate.

In the Money:

Tonight’s Powerball jackpot is $15 million.

We are still waiting to see who, in New Mexico, owns the one winning ticket worth $206.9 million.

There were no jackpot winners in last night’s Mega Millions drawing, but five players matched the first five balls and each won $250,000. The numbers were 9,30,35,39,49 and the Mega Ball was 36. The winning tickets were bought in Illinois (2), Michigan, New York and Texas. Friday’s Mega Million jackpot rolls up to $42 million.

Good luck.