A Florida woman lost $11,000 after falling for a scam that claimed to be giving away money from Arizona lottery winners.
PHOENIX — A Florida woman lost an estimated $11,000 to a scammer who said he represented Arizona lottery winners who had decided to give away the winnings.
Diana Izurieta said she got a text message from someone claiming to represent a Gilbert couple who won $474 million in the lottery this year. The message said the couple had picked 50 people at random across the country to give $90,000 each. The text gave a number to contact, “Mr. Woodman,” to coordinate payment.
A Gilbert couple did win more than $474 million in the Powerball drawing in 2022, and they chose to remain anonymous. But everything else was a scam.
“They took out maybe $1,000,” Izurieta said. “And then they started asking for credit card numbers and everything.”
Izurieta said, “Mr. Woodman” was asking for transfer fees, taxes, money to settle IRS charges…more and more money.
Each time the scammer claimed she would be reimbursed once the lottery money came through.
“And they’re like, you got to pay, it doesn’t matter how…borrow money,” she said.
