Elderly West Des Moines Woman Reports Losing $150,000 in Lottery Scam

An elderly West Des Moines woman who believed she’d won an international lottery was reportedly swindled out of about $150,000 over the past year.

The West Des Moines Police Department is continuing its investigation of the alleged scam, reported after the 78-year-old woman’s son questioned some of the transactions.

According to Officer Matthew Granzow’s report, the woman received a phone call at some time during the past year from an unknown person who claimed she had won an international lottery, but to claim her prize, she would first have to send a money order to a bank account in Jamaica.

Since then, she has received additional calls from people claiming to be with the IRS and investment companies, and she has sent money orders as they requested. The most she sent at one time was $50,000, according to the police report, and she sent it via the mail, Western Union and Green Dot Money Pak cards purchased at Walmart.

The woman was instructed to send the money to a different address each time, according to the report.

She said she didn’t suspect she had been the victim of a scam until her son quetioned the transactions. She has receipts from the multiple transactions as well as names, account numbers and other information, which she turned over to police.