KINGSTON, Jamaica — Americans sent more than $30 million to this Caribbean island last year to claim winnings in a Jamaican lottery. The trouble is there was no such contest.
Scam artists are making Jamaica a new center for internationally known lottery schemes, aiding a network of violent gangs that authorities say are putting the money into drug and gun trafficking. The U.S. and Jamaica are now teaming up to break up the cross-border schemes. A formal announcement of the project is planned for today.
The scams were made famous by criminals in Nigeria: A caller says you have won millions in an overseas lottery, but he needs you to wire a few hundred dollars to cover the taxes. Payments only lead to other requests for money. The schemes prey on compulsive impulses of victims who are often elderly.
Leslie Green, an assistant police commissioner, said the rackets contribute to a dramatic rise in violence in resort city Montego Bay, where many of the scams are based. The violence flares between gangs that discover they have purchased the same phone lists from brokers in the U.S.
