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Derek Jordan /Wick Communications
When Rosemarie Hoegg got a very official-looking letter in the mail last week informing her she had just won millions of dollars in a foreign lottery, she said she knew better.
"I knew off the bat that it was phony," Hoegg said.
The letter, which was from the so-called Spanish Sweepstake Lottery/International Program, clai-med she was the winner of $5.5 million.
Rather than just throw away the letter and be done with it, Hoegg said her curiosity got the best of her.
"I wanted to get to the bottom of it," she said. "Maybe I wanted to play detective."
Her sleuthing led her to call the phone number listed on the letter, and soon she found herself talking to a man who identified himself as David Leon, her claims agent.
Their conversation was riddled with small tricks to try to earn her trust and make the situation seem legitimate, she said.
For example, the man told her she needed to call a Spanish bank, but would have to wait until after the weekend.
"They really wanted to pull a fast one," she said.
Come Monday morning at 8:30 a.m., Hoegg said her phone rang.
"It was my claims agent," she said. "They asked me to call the bank right away."
Still playing along, Hoegg made the call and was told she would have to travel to Madrid to collect her supposed winnings.
After she told them she was unable to travel, they informed her they would be happy to deliver the money, in cash, if she would just wire $2,000 to pay for a "diplomat" to bring it to her.
"They all had really bad accents," Hoegg said, recalling the conversations. "I have been to Spain and I know their accents, and that wasn't a Spanish accent."
They told her to wire the money via Western Union, but not to tell the tellers what she was wiring the money for.
"That's where they really gave themselves away," she said.
Often, the ones behind these scams will tell their victims not to inform anyone of their apparent good fortune, said Patricia Armstrong, postal inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Phoenix.
The victims "are made to think that everyone else is the enemy," Armstrong said.
They also try to move things along quickly, following up with borderline harassing phone calls when recipients of letters don't immediately wire funds.
"They don't want to give you time to think about it or contact a family member," she said.
Those running these schemes can gather personal information like name, address and phone number through legitimate methods, like buying them from magazine companies or any company that collects a mailing list, Armstrong said. Other times, names and addresses are obtained illegally by purchasing them from other scam groups.
Though the Postal Inspection Service has seen more success in apprehending those responsible for fraud such as Hoegg was the subject of, it remains a difficult task, authorities said.
"It's difficult to get to people in Nigeria sitting at a wi-fi hot spot," Armstrong said.
A lot of these scams are operated outside the country, and they can be run by a single individual or a group of people scattered around the world.
"Some of those countries are willing to work with us" to capture those responsible and transport them to the U.S. for prosecution, but it is not common, she said.
Letters such as the one Hoegg received can seem very official.
"Many times, they're first-class mailings, and they can be very compelling," she said.
However, there are a number of signs to watch for in such letters.
"For one thing, it's illegal to send any lottery correspondence through the mail. That should be the first red flag," Armstrong said.
Issues with punctuation, grammar and sentence syntax are other good indicators the letters are false.
As if losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars in a scam isn't bad enough, it doesn't end there, she said.
"Once somebody re-sponds to one of those letters, even if it's just a dollar or $10, they get put on what they call a sucker list," she said. The information on the sucker list gets sold off to other fraudulent organizations.
Unfortunately, the senior population is most likely to fall for these types of fraud schemes.
"I've seen it just devastate people. It's taken their entire life savings," Armstrong said.
It was Hoegg's concern that others may have received the same letter and are tempted to send money. That's what led her to bring it to the attention of others.
"That really worries me," she said.
The best prevention against falling for scams such as this one is to educate yourself, Armstrong said.
(Derek Jordan is a reporter at the Sierra Vista Herlad/Bisbee Daily Review.)
"I knew off the bat that it was phony," Hoegg said.
The letter, which was from the so-called Spanish Sweepstake Lottery/International Program, clai-med she was the winner of $5.5 million.
Rather than just throw away the letter and be done with it, Hoegg said her curiosity got the best of her.
"I wanted to get to the bottom of it," she said. "Maybe I wanted to play detective."
Her sleuthing led her to call the phone number listed on the letter, and soon she found herself talking to a man who identified himself as David Leon, her claims agent.
Their conversation was riddled with small tricks to try to earn her trust and make the situation seem legitimate, she said.
For example, the man told her she needed to call a Spanish bank, but would have to wait until after the weekend.
"They really wanted to pull a fast one," she said.
Come Monday morning at 8:30 a.m., Hoegg said her phone rang.
"It was my claims agent," she said. "They asked me to call the bank right away."
Still playing along, Hoegg made the call and was told she would have to travel to Madrid to collect her supposed winnings.
After she told them she was unable to travel, they informed her they would be happy to deliver the money, in cash, if she would just wire $2,000 to pay for a "diplomat" to bring it to her.
"They all had really bad accents," Hoegg said, recalling the conversations. "I have been to Spain and I know their accents, and that wasn't a Spanish accent."
They told her to wire the money via Western Union, but not to tell the tellers what she was wiring the money for.
"That's where they really gave themselves away," she said.
Often, the ones behind these scams will tell their victims not to inform anyone of their apparent good fortune, said Patricia Armstrong, postal inspector with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Phoenix.
The victims "are made to think that everyone else is the enemy," Armstrong said.
They also try to move things along quickly, following up with borderline harassing phone calls when recipients of letters don't immediately wire funds.
"They don't want to give you time to think about it or contact a family member," she said.
Those running these schemes can gather personal information like name, address and phone number through legitimate methods, like buying them from magazine companies or any company that collects a mailing list, Armstrong said. Other times, names and addresses are obtained illegally by purchasing them from other scam groups.
Though the Postal Inspection Service has seen more success in apprehending those responsible for fraud such as Hoegg was the subject of, it remains a difficult task, authorities said.
"It's difficult to get to people in Nigeria sitting at a wi-fi hot spot," Armstrong said.
A lot of these scams are operated outside the country, and they can be run by a single individual or a group of people scattered around the world.
"Some of those countries are willing to work with us" to capture those responsible and transport them to the U.S. for prosecution, but it is not common, she said.
Letters such as the one Hoegg received can seem very official.
"Many times, they're first-class mailings, and they can be very compelling," she said.
However, there are a number of signs to watch for in such letters.
"For one thing, it's illegal to send any lottery correspondence through the mail. That should be the first red flag," Armstrong said.
Issues with punctuation, grammar and sentence syntax are other good indicators the letters are false.
As if losing hundreds or even thousands of dollars in a scam isn't bad enough, it doesn't end there, she said.
"Once somebody re-sponds to one of those letters, even if it's just a dollar or $10, they get put on what they call a sucker list," she said. The information on the sucker list gets sold off to other fraudulent organizations.
Unfortunately, the senior population is most likely to fall for these types of fraud schemes.
"I've seen it just devastate people. It's taken their entire life savings," Armstrong said.
It was Hoegg's concern that others may have received the same letter and are tempted to send money. That's what led her to bring it to the attention of others.
"That really worries me," she said.
The best prevention against falling for scams such as this one is to educate yourself, Armstrong said.
(Derek Jordan is a reporter at the Sierra Vista Herlad/Bisbee Daily Review.)
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