BEVERLY, MA — What might have been obvious to many could not be understood by the man standing in front of Beverly Police Community Impact Supervisor Daniel Brown on this day.
A common lottery scam where a North Shore resident gets a letter saying he or she won $2 million. All that needs to be paid are the taxes and the money is theirs. The resident came to the police at the urging of his wife, who thought it too good to be true.
She was right.
Yet, even though Brown proceeded to run down all the details of the money request without having seen the lottery letter — details he gathered during his 15 years dealing with similar scams — Brown said the man never did hand over the letter.
“He really thought he’d won that $2 million,” Brown said. “I don’t know if he ever sent them the $400 (for supposed “taxes”) or not.”
Brown told the Beverly City Council Monday that while spotting a scam may seem easy to many, con artists and grifters are becoming increasingly sophisticated and prey on the very emotions that cloud a person’s judgment.
“These are professionals,” he said. “This is what they do full-time. They rip people off and they’re good at it. They’ve gotten better at it with social media.”
Among the scams he talked about Monday night were the lottery scam, and the “Jury Duty Scam” where an unassuming resident gets a call — usually around the hectic dinner time — and is told they missed jury duty, there is a warrant out for their arrest and they must pay a fine or will…
