Elderly Woman Scammed Out Of $335K In Great Falls

GREAT FALLS, VA—An elderly woman from Great Falls was one of the victims of a lottery scam prosecuted in Alexandria federal court. The defendant, Tessicar Karelle Jumpp, 34, of Jamaica, was sentenced to six years in prison Monday for the scheme that scammed victims out of $385,000. The 85-year-old woman from Great Falls lost $335,000 in the scam.

According to prosecutors, Jumpp and others ran the scheme to get elderly victims' savings. Jumpp contacted victims in the United States posing as a representative of Publishers Clearing House. She falsely told the victims they'd won millions of dollars in lottery prizes but had to pay taxes and fees in advance.

Jumpp told the victims to send money by wire transfers and in packages of cash to co-conspirators in the U.S. The co-conspirators would keep some of the money and send the rest to Jumpp and others in Jamaica.

The other victim identified in the lawsuit was an 85-year-old Massachusetts man who lost nearly $50,000.

"The financial and emotional harm these scams cause elderly victims and their family members can be devastating," said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. "This office will continue to aggressively prosecute crimes involving elder fraud, and we are firmly committed to bringing the offenders to justice, no matter where they reside."

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