Cadillac--Three stores have been hit by fraudsters targeting local businesses and lottery scratch off tickets.
Lottery selling stores have been hit by a scam that leaves the criminal with cash and the local market in the red.
Boon Country store in Boon, Tom’s Food Market in Traverse City and Bill and Carol’s market in Petoskey were all victims of the same scam totaling thousands of dollars in losses.
“Two out of the three individuals came into the store wearing surgical masks, like your typical mask that were worn during Covid,” said Petoskey Public Safety Officer Will Bowen.
Here’s how it works, fraudsters attempt to purchase massive amounts of lottery scratch offs with a credit card. They then tell the cashier the card swipe is not working and ask if they can read the numbers to them, when the cashier obliges the transaction is processed.
The fraudster cashes in the winning tickets and the store doesn’t find out the credit card was stolen until it’s too late.
“So, there’s a mechanism somewhere where this money is returned to the credit cards and ultimately the store is out of money for the transaction,” said Bowen.” Obviously, they don’t have their lottery tickets their able to sell anymore because those are gone and have been redeemed, so it’s ultimately the owner of the store that’s out the money.”
Michigan Lottery spokesperson Jake Harris said lottery scams are nothing new, but he did give directives to local businesses.
“We’ve sent terminal messages out to retailers throughout the state to remind them to be aware of these various situations. Make sure that if a player is trying to purchase a large amount of tickets with a credit card, that clerks are not manually entering a number just based on what someone is telling them.”
Thirsty’s Elmrest party store owner said his store was a victim of a lottery scam a few years back to the tune of $921.00. He prosecuted; the fraudster was caught, but he never saw a dime of restitution. He said lottery fraudsters have select targets in mind.
“I think they like to use smaller towns and smaller stores,” said Robert Sake. “Maybe thinking that our guys late at night will just let it happen. Maybe their recognized in larger cities. But for sure, these scams are ongoing. It’s sad because they probably go to jail, get out and start all over again.”
