A New Jersey man tricked an 84-year-old woman into handing over more than $10,000 after telling her she won a lottery, but needed to pay the taxes on the winnings in advance, authorities said.
Earl Alton Smith, 40, convinced the Canandaigua, New York, resident to give him a $5,000 check and one totaling $5,500 in October, New York State Police said in a statement.
Smith was arrested by Port Authority police on Wednesday at Newark Liberty International Airport as he was about to board a plane. He was since been extradited to New York and charged with two counts of grand larceny.
New York State Police warned people against falling for lottery and other cons.
"It is easy to succumb to the thrill of big winnings, but if you are solicited for winning a contest you never entered, talk it over with a relative or friend, listen for a foreign accent, look for poor grammar or do some research on your own," a statement from New York State Police reads.
Authorities in New York didn't provide a hometown for Smith.
Harsh. I tend to be very sympathetic of the elderly getting scammed, because many live isolated lives and are too trusting. Many times they don't have people around for support and counsel, and they are not computer literate — so they might not be aware of the scams they are falling victim to.
Clearly, a man who cheats or tricks someone by gaining their trust and persuading them to believe something that is not true.
Earl should serve time, not slap on the wrist time. As sad as this is, looking on the other side of the coin, is the possibility of this 84 year old attempting to “ hide her windfall “ from parasitic children & grandchildren. Whatever the case, l hope the money is repaid.
Very good work by the Port Authority to catch this conman as he was about to board a plane.
I guess that more criminals are conmen and conwomen who do not want to leave their DNA behind at a crime scene and have chosen this line of criminality instead.
I agree with Todd and try to imagine myself at eighty years young. Being that age and having won a major Lottery prize by then I will not fall for these scams. That is what I think today and I have no idea of how or what I will be thinking at that age.
The victim, in this case, did not care about the embarrassment and contacted the police. BRAVO.
Restitution to me is the first thing; then some good old jail time. I'd love to know where he was flying to. Something tells me it was out of country.
A fake PCH "employee" sent me a message on Facebook. Said 'where are you located'.? Told him Publisher's Clearing House knows my address'. Wanted to know when I could pay the taxes to claim my prize. Said I'm on my way to Standiford Field right now to meet you'. Scammer.
She didn't win anything. Earl called and "convinced" her she won the lottery, and then "convinced" her she needed to pay 10.5K in "taxes" in order to get her winnings.
This is the same tactic used by the Jamaican lottery scammers.
Keep in mind in some cases, a husband or wife may have had to put a spouse in a nursing home. Since nursing homes can cost up to 10K a month, any life savings can be quickly depleted. Having someone call and say you won a large sum of money is often seen as a godsend by the elderly person. Sadly, the person calling is going to rip them off big time. But they don't want to believe it. Their thinking is, What if it's true? But then they get ripped off, and they are often too embarrassed to say anything about it. It probably happens a lot more often then we hear about.
If you have elderly parents or other family members, stay in touch, and stay aware, so it doesn't happen to them.
l know she didn't win anything G, which is why l put the windfall statement in brackets. My other side of the coin statement is that she convinced herself that she was going to get the money, so * in my scenario, she would not want her kids and grand kids knowing of her " she did not win any money." Does that help my case? Please say yes!