Apr.14, 2010

Police have discovered 50 money laundering pensioners as old as 90 in Norfolk and Surrey areas, after Canadian fraudsters targeted vulnerable, elderly Britons and tricked them into becoming money launderers in a lottery scam.

The con artists would ring the unsuspecting victims and inform them that they had won a sizeable prize for a competition they never actually entered. In order to receive this prize, the pensioners were told that an administration fee was required to release it to them. The money was sent to the ‘lottery company’ and the scam thus successful.

Those ‘customers’ that could not afford to pay the fee were offered an alternative form of payment, a chance to ‘earn’ the cash by banking cheques from other ‘winners’. The money was then passed on to the fake lottery company in Ottawa.

Pensioners were unwittingly committing criminal offences; with the money being used suspected to be drug money.

Norfolk Police only noticed the eccentric lotto scam because pensioners started suing each other for their ‘winnings’.

80 year-old George Smith from Cambridgeshire, a retired engineer, was informed he had won £638,000 on the Canadian lottery, which he was over the moon about, so paying a £250 admin fee seemed to him a necessary charge.

Mr Smith told newspaper, the Mail: “Like a fool I sent £250. I live on my pension in a council estate and winning the lottery would have been heaven. I was dazzled by the amount.”

However, the money never arrived and 9 months later, still unknowingly being conned, Mr Smith was contacted again by the fraudsters, who requested another release fee.

Informing them he had no cash, the alternative payment option became available to the pensioner, and he began banking cheques at around £150- £200, which he paid into his own account and forwarded to Canada.

It wasn’t until a cheque for £1,000 arrived that Mr Smith started feeling uneasy about the situation; but it was a phone call from Cornwall confirmed things.

He continued: “I was worried where the money was coming from and where I was sending it. I then got a letter from some lady in Cornwall who said she had sent me her money and had not received any winnings. She said if I didn’t pay, she would call in her solicitors.”

The arrival of a package containing £10,000 prompted Mr Smith to call the police and hand it over.

The police believe the fraudsters to still be at large, and are now aiming to create awareness and educate the public, especially pensioners, of the tactics used.

Detective Superintendent Bob Wishart from the City of London, who has been coordinating the investigation into the racket, said: “What is particularly unpleasant and shameless is the way they seek to take advantage of the most vulnerable in our society.

“But these criminals should understand that police forces around the world are working together to track them down, wherever they may ply their trade.”

This is not the first time people have been duped by the fraud. Canadian-based lottery scams have hit an 89 year-old man in Cumbria who has lost £100,000 of his money over 3 years to the con, as well as a 90 year-old man from Hertfordshire, who lost £31,000 submitting to fraudsters’ demands.