By Glenroy Sinclair, Staff ReporterLOCAL FRAUD Squad detectives are probing an international scam in which several Americans, mostly elderly citizens, have been fleeced of thousands of dollars by persons in Jamaica.
This, after the United States citizens are informed that they have won the lottery in Jamaica and are told to send a sum of money to facilitate the processing and transfer of winnings to them.
A spokesperson at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington D.C. told The Gleaner yesterday that persons living in Jamaica have mysteriously got hold of scores of United States citizens' credit cards, telephone numbers and home addresses.
WON LARGE SUMS
"What they have been doing is calling these people (US citizens), telling them that their names came up on a list and that they have won large sums of money in a lottery," the Embassy spokesman said.
"These US citizens are persons who have never travelled to Jamaica. We have got complaints from Texas and Arizona. In one case, a lady said she sent at least US$4,000 over a period of time," said the Embassy spokesperson.
Head of the Fraud Squad, Superintendent Errol Samuels, not only confirmed the reports yesterday, but said the complaints were being investigated.
He said that Police Commissioner Francis Forbes had received at least two letters from US citizens complaining about the same problem. The Gleaner understands that the traces of some of the calls made to the US are pointing to addresses in one of Kingston's inner-city communities.
Traces are also pointing to addresses in the Kingston 5 area, Falmouth, Trelawny and Montego Bay, St. James. According to Supt. Samuels, some of these addresses are fictitious.
Assistant Commissioner Errol Strong, who also spoke with The Gleaner from the Jamaican Embassy in Washington D.C., said there is very little that the embassy can do from that end because the crime was being committed in Jamaica.
