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Today's tip: Never give a stranger $200 for a $1,000 winning lottery ticket
By adamg on Thu, 10/28/2010 - 12:40pm
MBTA Transit Police report this guy's been busy of late at both North and South stations:
The suspect tells the victim he just purchased a $1,000.00 winning lottery ticket, has to catch a train, and will take $200 for the ticket as he has no time to cash it. Thirty individuals have reported to Lottery Headquarters with these counterfeit tickets as victims of this scheme.
He's described as white, about 5'10" and 200 lbs. If you spot him, Transit Police and the Lottery Commission would like to have a word with him. Drop a dime to Det. Matthew Haney at 617-222-1178.
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Comments
But which scheme?
Two questions pop immediately to mind;
A) This guy has managed to find 30 people who just happen to be carrying around $200 in cash? and
B) Are dumb enough to fall for this?
I suspect there is a scam involved here somehow, but I'm not convined it is the one being reported...
ATMs
I don't know about North Station (haven't had much reason to visit it in years), but South Station has a bunch of ATMs right at the entrance that are perfect for helping out some poor guy who doesn't want to miss his train - and making a bit of profit off the deal.
But, yeah, 30 people? Sheesh.
Chuck Turner fell for the
Chuck Turner fell for the same thing
North Station has ATMs
in the train waiting area as well.
And the fact 30 people fell for this doesn't totally surprise me. Sad but true, there are indeed an awful lot of gullible folks out there who are easy prey for such schemes. Another recent local example:
http://www.patriotledger.com/news/cops_and_courts/...
30 people IS astonishing.
30 people IS astonishing. Don't people realize that lottery tickets are good for like a year? Plenty of time to catch your train home and then cash it. Or miss your damn train and cash it.
One would have also thought that people dumb enough to fall for this scam wouldn't have 200 dollars in their bank account.
Are the victims gullible?
Doesn't everyone know lottery tickets have a 30-day (or is it 90?) lag time before they are null?
According to a good friend of mine who
runs a small convenience store, scratch tickets are not to be sold by Lottery agents more than 90 days after the game is first issued by the Lottery. However, a walk into any local 7-11, which ususally has 20 to 30 different flavors of scratch tickets available at any given time, will tell you how well the Lottery enforces that policy.
However, like the other Lottery drawings such as MegaMillions, a player with a winning scratch ticket has up to one year from the date the game was first issued to claim their prize.
Yeah, that's not the rule.
Yeah, that's not the rule. Most of those games go on for years, because they clearly state that they keep running until the last top prize has been redeemed. Tickets can be redeemed for up to a year after the game ends.
What's weird about this scam is that any prize over $600 can't be redeemed at the convenience store; you have to go all the way to the lottery HQ in Braintree for them to cash a $1000 ticket. Though I guess anyone looking to make a quick buck when there are that many warning signs probably isn't firing on all cylinders anyway.
Thank you for the clarifications
Once again, my fingers typed faster than my brain thought about what I was writing - I am aware that you can redeem a scratch prize up to one year after the game has ended, not one year after the game was originally issued.
As for the duration of scratch games, that must have been a recent (within the past few years) change. And, IMO, it only proves how desperate the Lottery has become in their quest to milk money from people. By the new rules, as you have stated them, a scratch game could possibly go on for a decade or more, provided not all the tickets have been sold and there is only one remaining top prize - even though there are outrageously long odds of anyone ever hitting that top prize.
For the record, I seldom buy Lottery tickets myself unless the jackpot is a really large one, and I can't remember the last time I actually bought a "scraper" (scratch ticket)
You don't have to redeem in Braintree...
...but if you have a prize over $50,000, you're REQUIRED to cash it there. This would include the million dollar and up tickets.
If the prize is under $50K, you can cash it as close as the Game Room at Ashburton Place. The other Lottery offices are in New Bedford, Woburn, Springfield and Worcester.
All very true...and a few more clarifications
I've been a lottery player for 15 years, but if I weren't a lottery player, I think I would have been taken in by this scam too. The guy is making $6,000 and all for a bogus $1,000 ticket AND preying on people's sympathies.
The reason why you have to take a ticket over $600 to a Lottery office is so they can determine whether it is a legitimate ticket. If Ticket A doesn't match up with their database of winning tickets, of course it's going to stick out like a sore thumb. Having a random code with a big prize prevents "code hunting," and last year the Lottery added nine new random codes to the tickets because people were looking for prizes without scratching the entire ticket, including "fakeout" codes. (e.g. the letter "N" at the end of the ticket usually meant the person won a $10 prize or something between $100-$500. Now, "N" can show up on any losing ticket.)
Also, since 2004, the State takes 5% withholding on your prize on everything above $600 ($30 minimum); if the prize is over $5,000, the IRS takes an additional 25%. If you're in arrears with the state (welfare, child support, taxes) that prize money could be seized to offset what you haven't paid. If you don't have a Social Security number, the Lottery is obliged to withhold 31% of your check.
I was interviewed tonight at South Station by WBZ-TV by Jonathan Elias. His eyes lit up when I mentioned this to him and he was thrilled. Me, on the other hand...I'm not the least bit telegenetic and nervous as hell (when he asked me how long I've been playing, I said, "Too long?" or something similar). If I were not a lottery player, I think I would have been taken in by the scam.
Knowing what I do and how people can be taken in by scams like this, I'm hoping they catch this SOB.
Just curious
If every scratch ticket has an unique identifier (which is apparently under the "DO NOT REMOVE" section of the ticket), then why do they need additional random codes on the tickets themselves?
And if players not scratching the full ticket is such a problem in the first place (which seems silly to me - a bum ticket is still a bum ticket), then perhaps the Lottery should just remove the random codes completely.
As I previously stated, I do not routinely buy scratch tickets. However, several of my co-workers do, so I am very familiar with the very lazy practice of only checking the random codes instead of scratching off the entire ticket
I'm with you on that...
The real backbone of what makes a winning ticket is really the bar code in the back of the ticket. A forger can alter a dud to make it look like a big winner, but they forget the bar code on the ticket already has the correct information, including where it was sold, when it was activated, how much it's worth, and how the ticket was won (e.g. if it's a $10 ticket, was it a straight $10 winner or 5 $2 winners). Once a ticket is scanned through, that ticket is claimed as a winner from the ticket database - and if someone tries to cash it again, the machine will say "Previously Cashed."
The codes mainly for the retailer to quickly ID tickets as winners or losers - and too many losing tickets scanned in will force retailers to scan tickets AND scratch off the Void if Removed spot. For winning tickets over $600, it would not be economical to assign regular codes to the winning tickets; hence, assigning a code at random alerts the Lottery that the ticket is over $600 and the player has to file a claim with the Lottery so that appropriate taxes can be taken out. Of course, the point is moot if the ticket is a losing ticket; you don't need a strict code to tell you you lost.
Conversely, it keeps the retailers honest too. If you have a $400 ticket, and the retailer gives you $40, the bar code on the ticket AND the verification code would indicate it's a $400 winner and the retailer is pocketing the other $360 - and if the retailer isn't scanning in your ticket but giving you a lot less money, contact the Lottery and let them know about it. The Lottery's audit trail will indicate any discrepancies, and they have no qualms in shutting down a machine and removing their tickets and license to sell if they receive a complaint from a customer that they're being stiffed their full amount.
I'm with you on removing the codes, though. Retailers could put them under the Void if Removed section, and if the player scratches it off to find the code, they void out the prize.
Full disclosure: I buy instant tickets daily, but I do play responsibly.