Long Beach : Woman, 78, Loses $11,000 in Lottery Ticket Scam

A 78-year-old Signal Hill woman was bilked of $11,000 by two men in a lottery scam this week, Long Beach police reported Wednesday.

The woman was about to enter the Grocery Warehouse on Cherry Avenue Monday when a man approached her and asked for help in cashing a winning $95,000 lottery ticket, police spokesman Bob Anderson said. He told the woman that he couldn’t claim the winnings because he was in the country illegally.

At the same time, a second man approached to ask for help in getting medicine, police said. The two men worked out a deal to split the lottery winnings and then persuaded the woman to join them, Anderson said.

The men pretended to call California lottery officials to confirm the winning ticket.

The woman, asked to contribute “faith money,” drove to her home in Signal Hill and gave the men $6,000 she had recently received in a mortgage transaction, police said. The men then talked her into going to her bank for another $5,000.

“To make it even worse, one of the suspects says he’s ill and she goes to Thrifty to pick up medicine for him,” Anderson said. Finding no medication under the man’s name, the woman “comes running out into the parking lot and finds that they’re gone.”

Police have no suspects, Anderson said.