Crime & Safety

Port Chester Woman Conned Out of $1,500 in Lotto Ticket Scam

The scam pops up "every four or five months" in Port Chester, police say.

Police are warning of a lottery scam after a Port Chester woman was taken for $1,500 Friday by swindlers working in tandem.

The 38-year-old victim was walking on Grace Church Street near Holy Rosary Church at 10 a.m. when she was approached by a young woman who told her a sob story: she'd fallen on hard times, lost her home and had no place to stay.

But she told the victim there was a silver lining -- she had a winning lottery ticket for $125,000 and would share the winnings in exchange for a cash advance and help cashing the ticket.

The woman told the victim she could not cash the lottery ticket herself because she did not have valid identification, Lt. James Ladeairous said.

While the scammer was spinning her tale, a man in his mid-50s approached. He was working with the suspect, but pretended he just happened by and listened to the woman's story with interest.

The man expressed skepticism at first, then said he was going to check the lottery numbers to see if the woman's story was true. When he returned, he had a series of numbers hand-written on a slip of paper, and said the numbers matched.

The victim agreed to join the man and woman in the man's green minivan. They drove the victim to her home, where she retrieved her ID, and then drove her to the bank, where she withdrew $1,500. The victim handed the money over to the other woman, who placed the bills in a sock, Ladeairous said.

To prove "good faith," the pair drove the victim back to her home, then handed the stuffed sock back to her and told her to put the cash in her home for safekeeping before they'd go to claim the lottery winnings.

When the victim walked into her home and opened the sock, she found nothing but paper inside. When she went back outside, the green minivan was gone.

Ladeairous said it's a recurring scam in Port Chester and other nearby towns.

"Every four or five months we get them," he said. "But that's only the people who report it. I'm sure there are people [who have been defrauded] who are too embarrassed to call the police."

After successfully running their con, the scammers will usually jump to another town to try the same scheme, he said. Police know it's a numbers game, and they believe the con artists would have approached several people the same day until they found a victim. Detectives want to hear from those people.

The woman was between 25 and 30 years old, about 5'3" tall, 125 to 130 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. The victim told police the woman was "possibly Argentine" and wore a multi-colored knit hat and a long black jacket. Her partner was a Hispanic male about 55 years old, around 5'2" or 5'3" and 140 pounds, with black and gray hair and brown eyes. He was wearing jeans and a black leather jacket.

Anyone who encountered the con artists is asked to call the Port Chester Police Department at 914-939-1000. All calls will be kept confidential.

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