![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/LOTTO1-300x257.jpg\" "\\"LOTTO1\\"")
Southwest Florida\u00a0Crime Stoppers is asking for the public\u2019s help identifying a group of individuals working in unison to scam vulnerable victims of out of thousands of dollars in cash.<\/p>\nSouthwest Florida\u00a0Crime Stoppers is asking for the public\u2019s help identifying a group of individuals working in unison to scam vulnerable victims of out of thousands of dollars in cash.<\/p>\n
Over the last year, a core group of individuals, comprised of four or more suspects, have targeted individuals from Immokalee to\u00a0Fort Myers\u00a0to\u00a0Hendry\u00a0County\u00a0with a phony story of a winning lottery ticket and a need for help in getting it cashed.\u00a0 Detectives say the trend started in April 2015, when a\u00a0Bonita\u00a0Springs\u00a0senior citizen was approached at her home by two strangers.\u00a0 She stated a man and woman told her they had a winning lottery ticket, however were unable to cash it due to a lack of proper identification.\u00a0 They asked if she could help them cash the ticket, and in return they\u2019d give her a portion of the winnings.\u00a0 However before the unknown couple entrusted her with their \u201cwinning\u201d ticket, they demanded some insurance, in the form of $30,000 of the victim\u2019s personal cash \u2013 to which she obliged.\u00a0 While enroute to cash the ticket, the female suspect feigned illness and asked if the victim would run into the local Walgreens to pick up some Advil for the suspect.\u00a0 The trusting woman again complied with the request, but when she returned with the pain reliever in hand, the suspects were gone \u2013 and so was her cash.<\/p>\n
Fast forward a few months to August, when the Fort Myers Police Department investigated an incident where two females introduced themselves to an elderly victim at the DD Discount store, located on\u00a0Cleveland Ave., and convinced her that they were in possession of a winning lottery ticket.\u00a0 The female suspects told the victim they could not cash the ticket because they were not legal citizens.\u00a0 The female suspects persuaded the victim to withdraw $12,000 from her bank account and give it to them, in exchange for the winning ticket, supposedly valued at $395,000.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the victim gave the suspects the money, however when she went to cash in the ticket, she found out that she\u2019d been scammed.<\/p>\n
Then, in late September, a\u00a0Lee\u00a0County\u00a0woman reported that she was shopping at the Save A Lot in Labelle when two unknown Hispanic females approached her.\u00a0 The women stated that they had won $800,000 in the lottery, but needed help exchanging the ticket for money because they were illegal immigrants.\u00a0 They offered the victim the opportunity to assist them, under the guise of splitting the winnings with her.\u00a0 But in order to get the ball rolling, the women needed some cash up front to be sure the victim would follow through.\u00a0 As a result, she handed over the $8,700 in cash which she kept in her vehicle.\u00a0 The women then drove her to the CVS store on\u00a0Palm Beach Boulevard\u00a0in Tice to withdraw another $1,350.\u00a0 Once they had her $10,050 in hand, one of the women asked the victim if she could run into the store to purchase some baby wipes.\u00a0 Upon her return to the car, the women were gone, and so was the victim\u2019s money.<\/p>\n
In addition to these three incidents, there have also been similar incidents reported in the Immokalee area over the last few months, as well. \u00a0Although the descriptions of the suspects vary, detectives firmly believe all of the suspects are working in tandem to scam victims \u2013 mostly senior citizens \u2013 of their life savings.\u00a0 Detectives estimate that in 2015 alone, the criminal chain has scammed local residents of more than $90,000.\u00a0 The suspects are all believed to be Hispanic, some in their 30s and some in their 60s.\u00a0 Most of the suspects have been women, but there is also at least one man involved.\u00a0 The \u201cstory\u201d they profess to the victims is identical in every case, as are their tactics in getting away with the cash.<\/p>\n
In the August incident, surveillance photos of the suspects were captured, however to date, they are still unidentified and at large.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe suspects in every single one of these incidents have the gift of gab, and come off as very convincing individuals to the victims,\u201d said Trish Routte, Crime Stoppers Coordinator.\u00a0 \u201cThey sell them a story that the victims want to hear \u2013 one where they can help someone in need and get rich in the process.\u00a0 But at the end of the day, if the \u2018deal\u2019 sounds too good to be true, it probably is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anyone with information on the identities of the persons involved with this conspiracy of fraud is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS (8477).\u00a0 All callers will remain anonymous and will be eligible for a cash reward of up to $1,000.\u00a0 Tips may also be made online at\u00a0www.swflcrimestoppers.org<\/a>\u00a0or by texting a tip to CRIMES (274637) Keyword: REWARD.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Southwest Florida\u00a0Crime Stoppers is asking for the public\u2019s help identifying a group of individuals working in unison to scam vulnerable victims of out of thousands of dollars in cash. Over… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38226"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38226\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thelehighacresgazette.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}