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Senior citizens, told they won a lottery, lost $236,000 to a North Miami Beach fraudster
Returning to the lottery scam he knew too well will cost a North Miami Beach man about three years of his freedom after sentencing in Miami federal court.
The time sentence to 34-year-old Akiel Doman after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and mail fraud is 44 months. Doman will have to serve at least 85% of that sentence or just over 37 months (three years, one month) in addition to the money part of the sentence, $234,995 in restitution.
Unfortunately, it cost Doman's victims that cash and most of those victims were senior citizens. They were Doman's alleged victims in 2015, according to a 2018 complaint by the U.S. Department of Justice's Consumer Protection Branch filed a complaint. Doman signed a consent decree that neither admitted nor denied the allegations in the complaint, but did prohibit him from having anything to do with a prize promotion fraud or money transmitting business.
That was in March 2019. Doman violated that by May 2020, according to his guilty plea.
The lottery fraud
All versions of the lottery fraud involve making people think they've won a large amount of money and convincing them that to get that large amount, they have to hand over a small or medium amount of money.
As Doman's guilty plea said, his cronies would call a target, say they were with a lottery or sweepstakes and claim a prize such as a car or millions in cash awaited them. All they needed to do was pay the fees or taxes up front and they'd get their prize.
'Doman's co-conspirator gave the victims specific instructions on how, and to whom, to send money for the purported fees or taxes,' Doman's admission of facts said. 'In connection with this scheme, different victims sent money to Doman through different means. At least one victim, KC, deposited money directly into Doman's bank account ($9,000). Another victim sent money to Doman's accomplice who transferred it to Doman via Zelle.'
Using Zelle to transmit money during a fraud is wire fraud. Some sent money by mail — mail fraud. Violating the injunction counts as criminal contempt of court.
The U.S. Postal Inspection Service's Miami office investigated this case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertha R. Mitrani.
Hints to avoid lottery or sweepstakes fraud
1. If you didn't play, you didn't win. This is the flip side of 'You have to be in it to win it' — if you're not in it, you can't win it.
2. If someone asks you to pay a fee to collect your prize, it's a scam.
3. While you'll have to pay taxes on winnings, 'prepayment of taxes' to the company running the contest isn't a thing. As the U.S. Postal Service said in its Consumers Guide to Sweepstakes and Lotteries, 'Remember, you pay taxes only to the Internal Revenue Service.'
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