Jan 6, 2015 2 min read

An elderly Canonsburg woman became the latest person to fall victim to a foreign lottery scam after a caller talked her into paying “taxes” in order to claim a $5 million prize.

Last week, South Strabane Township police learned from the family of an 87-year-old woman she was duped out of $800,000 over the last several months. She most recently received a call Dec. 27 from a man claiming to represent Publishers Clearing House notifying her she won $750,000 but had to send $300 through a prepaid money card to claim the prize.

Canonsburg police Detective Michael Ledger said the 87-year-old victim told him she was getting calls for about a year.

The woman’s niece told police she believes it may have been going on for two or three years.

Ledger said the calls were coming to the woman on an 876 area code.

“It appears to be from the United States, but Google it and you see it is from Jamaica,” Ledger said. “And once these callers get hold of you, they never let go. When she asked how much more she would have to pay in taxes, they were vague about the amount and said they were still working on it.”

“They want the victims to get the Green Dot prepaid cards,” he added. “Once the numbers from the card are read to them, the card releases the money to her account.”

The Canonsburg woman is on a fixed income, relying on her monthly Social Security check. But this month, she was not able to pay her rent because of the money paid out to the scam, the detective said.

“Her niece had to pay for it,” Ledger said.

Not only was she talked into getting the prepaid gift cards, Ledger believes the con artists talked her into getting prepaid telephone cards for the return calls.

“She told me that she had no more minutes and she had to get more,” he added. “It is probably a way so families don’t see the outgoing calls to foreign countries. But you can have outgoing calls to foreign countries blocked on a phone.”