Lottery scams are always prevalent and can come in many forms. Over the phone, in person and online are just few ways that crooks can swindle money from innocent victims. In Santa Barbara a woman was scammed out of $12,000 when a man conned her out of her money.

The fifty five year old woman was approached by two people who said they had a winning lottery ticket. They told the woman they could not cash the ticket in as one of them was in the country illegally. They told her if she cashed the ticket for them she would get a cut of the money.

They also told her they needed a deposit to be sure that she would cash the ticket and not run off with their money. So that is how they got her $12,000. Of course there was no winning ticket and the crooks earned $12,000 in the process.

The woman of course reported the crime and this past week a patrol officer saw a man of the victims description speaking with an elderly female. The man saw the police car and used a pay phone and was soon picked up by another gentleman. The police officer followed the car
and pulled them over for expired registration.

Money and lottery tickets were found in the vehicle so the driver was arrested for being an unlicensed driver and it would found that he was wanted in New York for theft charges. The man, Raul Gonzalo Santana, was then booked at the county jail for charges of grand theft and being an unlicensed driver.



- 2009-05-08