Jamaican Government Anti-Lottery Scam Campaign Advances

Since at least 2007, Jamaican-based lottery fraud schemes have been the subject of sustained law enforcement interest.  A 2010 threat assessment by the International Mass-Marketing Fraud Working Group (IMMFWG) noted "the rising popularity of lottery fraud schemes targeting U.S. residents among Kingston- and Montego Bay-based criminal enterprises. These operations are using police corruption, murder, kidnappings, robberies, and other violent tactics to discourage rival groups, compete for proceeds and lists of potential victims, and expand their operations."  [Full disclosure: I co-chair the IMMFWG.]  A Jamaica Observer article reported that more than 200 people in Jamaica had been killed because of disputes between competing lottery-scam operators.

Although the problem has festered for some time, this year a series of events brought the problem to international attention.  In January, an eight-year-old British girl visiting Jamaica was shot to death in a roadside shop, "an innocent victim of gangsters fighting a turf war" (Daily Mail) over lottery scams.  The murder quickly led to the arrests of eight individuals.

This month, there has been a flurry of action, in both the United States and Jamaica.  After Dan Rather of AXS-TV and CBS This Morning ran stories on the problem, on March 13 the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging held a public hearing on Jamaica-based lottery scams that target seniors,  The Senate Aging hearing -- which received extensive media coverage in both countries -- is available on the Committee's webpage, which includes a video of the full hearing, as well as prepared statements by adult children of fraud schemes, law enforcement representatives (York County (Maine) Sheriff's Department, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), and private-sector entities (AARP and Western Union), Two other links on the webpage are, respectively, especially instructive and poignant: an audio recording of a telephone conversation between a Jamaican scam artist and an intended victim; and a brief video clip of an 83-year-old victim suffering from dementia who is exhorted not to answer any more calls but who sends more money to Jamaican scammers the very next day.

That same week, on March 16, the Jamaican Ambassador to the United States, Stephen Vascianne, gave a speech in New York to members of the Jamaican-American Bar Association and other professionals.  In that speech, Ambassador Vascianne reportedly urged the audience to help raise awareness about the Jamaican lottery scam.  He also called attention to "public campaigns [that] have also been launched in Jamaica to counter the mistaken notion spread by entertainers that scamming is justifiable reparations for slavery and other historical sins."

Soon after that, on March 21, the Jamaican Senate passed the Bill Law Reform (Fraudulent Transactions) (Special Provisions) Act.  That bill, according to the Jamaica Information Service, would criminalize "obtaining any property or inducing any person to confer any benefit on any person by false pretence; inviting or otherwise inducing a person to visit Jamaica for the purpose of committing an offence under the Act; and knowingly conducting a financial transaction with the proceeds of an offence."  It also reportedly would provide for "powers of search and seizure and restitution, and for guilty persons to be fined and sentenced to a term of imprisonment for up to 25 years."  U.S. Ambassador to Jamaica Pamela Bridgewater spoke positively of the Government's introduction of the bill, indicating, according to CVM News, that "the foundation has been laid to fight the lottery scam."  ABC News reported that Jamaican Minister of Justice Mark Golding said he expects enforcement of the law, which the Jamaican House of Representatives had already passed, "to begin by the end of this month."  While lottery scammers reportedly are "unfazed" at the prospect of extradition to the United States, the Jamaican Government has affirmed its commitment to stamping out the problem.