Woman, 85, sold home to hand over ‘lottery fees’

TORONTO• Police say an 85- year- old Toronto woman lost about $ 600,000 in a socalled “lottery sweepstake scam,” with some of the money coming from the sale of her $2.6-million home.

The woman — who police say has diminished mental capacity — was told she had won a substantial amount of money and was only required to pay the taxes and other “recovery costs,” investigators said Wednesday.

Det. Alan Spratt said police became aware the woman was sending money to scammers in 2014 and believed she had stopped. But they received a tip last month that she was still sending money.

“It looks like she sold the home to get money to send” in order to pay off the “fees” associated with her supposed lottery win, Spratt said, noting they believe she sent money both before and after the sale of her residence.

Investigators allege the scammer disbursed approximately $ 600,000 of her savings to accounts in Ontario and across the world before the woman’s friends became aware of the situation.

Toronto police, working with police in Peterborough, Ont., the Office of the Public Trustee and independent financial institutions, were able to locate where the woman had forwarded her funds and recovered about $380,000 in several bank accounts. They also recovered $ 20,000 in cellphones the victim had been instructed to buy, but which had not yet been shipped internationally.

Spratt said the scammers were laundering the money through other victims. “Our victim was asked to send money to others ... in Ottawa and Peterborough,” who were instructed to keep some of the money and pass on the rest, he said.

No suspects have been identified. “We do believe that the suspects are operating this from outside of Canada,” the detective said.