Woman loses $200,000 in scam

A Spokane Valley woman lost more than $200,000 in a Canadian lottery scam last year.

A 77-year-old Edgecliff woman told investigators she wired $5,000 on multiple occasions to different people in Canada, said Spokane County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Dave Reagan. She was told by scammers that the money was a fee she had to pay in order to receive a $700,000 check supposedly waiting for her at a New York bank.

She started sending the money in March, but stopped in December when she became concerned she might have fallen victim to a fraud, Reagan said.

The Canadian lottery scam always involves a suspect phoning or writing potential victims, usually the elderly, and claiming that they have won a large amount of money, Reagan said. But the person must first pay a “border fee” or some other type of tax in order to collect their winnings.

Despite never having actually played the lottery, victims still send the suspects cash, Reagan said. It’s rare that a victim’s money is ever recovered.

The best advice detectives can offer is this: “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Don’t let greed get in the way of logic.”