Published: January 19, 2006 11:41 pm      

Lottery-scam losses near $300G, authorities say

SOMERSET — Requests continue to pour into Somerset Trust Co. to cash counterfeit checks sent as part of a nationwide scam that has robbed victims of nearly $300,000 so far.

Canadian con artists have sent hundreds of letters across the United States that say recipients have won the Canadian lottery.

The letters are accompanied by forged Somerset Trust treasurers checks.

The routing number is correct, so out-of-state banks often will put through the checks, some for more than $5,000.

Days later, when Somerset Trust won’t cash the counterfeit checks, the original bank looks to the victim who cashed the check for the money it lost.

“Our bank account is ruined,” said 27-year-old Kelly Stitt of El Paso, Texas.

“That’s where our paychecks go and how we pay our bills.”

Stitt, a college student and mother of two, now may be responsible for returning the money for the fake $3,280 check she cashed at her local bank.

“I didn’t give them my name or Social (Security number) or anything, so I thought I had nothing to lose,” she said.

“I do Internet surveys where they turn in your name for sweepstakes. I thought I was a winner.”

Now, Stitt is working with Somerset Borough officers to try to recoup her loss.

It doesn’t look good. Secret Service agents say this scam and similar ones have been going on for years.

“Anything that sounds that good can never be true,” said borough police Officer Tony Novak, who is working with the Secret Service in Pittsburgh and Canadian authorities.

He got his first call about the scam Dec. 23, and new cases are coming in daily.

Novak said he had the phone number listed on the checks disconnected.

The phone would ring in Canada, and the con men presumably would answer it “Somerset Trust.”

That hasn’t stopped the scam.

The con men are pulling the same trick, without a number, authorities say.

Somerset Trust compliance officer Michael Whipkey could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.

Special Agent Matt LaVigna said he could not directly comment on an investigation, though he said a Canadian lottery scam is nothing new.

“This is an ongoing scam that morphed into sending a check ahead,” said LaVigna, assistant special agent in charge of the Secret Service’s Pittsburgh office. “It used to begin with a phone call, but people are hesitant about sending money.

“The scams are all similar. It’s the same old story,” LaVigna said.

He said recipients should use their street smarts with such unrealistic offers.

“If somebody walked up to you and said the same thing, you wouldn’t believe it,” he said.

“You can’t win a lottery you didn’t play to begin with.”



Kecia Bal can be reached at 445-5103 or kbal@tribdem.com.