Man arrested in connection with Jamaican lottery scam MIAMI – A Jamaican man was arrested Tuesday and charged with participating in a telemarketing conspiracy and committing 37 counts of wire fraud. The charges resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the U.S. Marshals Service. Oneike Mickhale Barnett, 27, and his co-conspirators ran a lottery scam in Jamaica that fraudulently induced elderly victims in the United States to send them thousands of dollars to cover fees for lottery winnings that the victims had not in fact won. Beginning in October 2008, Barnett and his co-conspirators allegedly made calls from Jamaica to victims using voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). Using VoIP, the telephone calls appeared to originate from a U.S. area code. Once Barnett and his co-conspirators made contact with the victims, they would inform the victims they had won cash and prizes. Then, they would persuade the victims to send thousands of dollars in fees to release the money. The victims never received cash or prizes. According to the indictment, Barnett and his co-conspirators convinced victims to send money to middlemen in South Florida, who forwarded the money to Jamaica.
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 22:10:39 +0000
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