{"id":43912,"date":"2022-07-19T08:18:47","date_gmt":"2022-07-19T08:18:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/"},"modified":"2022-07-19T08:18:47","modified_gmt":"2022-07-19T08:18:47","slug":"payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/","title":{"rendered":"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners"},"content":{"rendered":"<div >\n<p ><b >Victims of an international scam that tricked the elderly and sick into gambling for cash prizes that were never won are set to receive payouts.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Scammers in the US have tricked people into paying upfront for guaranteed cash prizes that have never been paid.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >About 3,500 UK victims are being repaid a share of \u00a3530,000 after a landmark case and four years of investigation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Compensation is being funded after authorities demanded cash, luxury homes and a Bentley from the scammers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;Being a victim of fraud can have a huge emotional impact on individuals, so I am delighted that we are able to use the proceeds of these crimes to help compensate thousands of UK victims,&#8221; \u200b\u200bsaid Louise Baxter, Head of UK National Trading Standards Scams team.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Victims are reimbursed 20% of their losses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Potential victims at risk were identified by the scammers using &#8220;suckers lists&#8221; circulated by scammers and sent scam letters suggesting they were &#8220;guaranteed&#8221; to receive large cash prizes.  They were targeted because they were older and living alone or had long-term health problems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >It is estimated that over seven million letters were sent to UK addresses in the four years from 2014.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >At the heart of the scam was a demand for an upfront payment of between \u00a325 and \u00a340 to unlock the &#8220;prize&#8221;.  Some people paid the fee multiple times, and some lost many hundreds of pounds before realizing there was no prize.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The nerve center of the operation was discovered by British investigators from National Trading Standards in Kansas, USA.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Three men &#8211; Kevin Brandes, William Graham and Charles Floyd Anderson &#8211; and their companies had sent tens of millions of fraudulent letters to individuals around the world as part of the so-called Next Gen Sweepstakes.  Alongside this, they operated a vintage and vintage car sale and held millions of dollars in various bank accounts, according to trading standards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >The US Federal Trade Commission took action and the trio agreed to forfeit $30m (\u00a325m) in cash and assets, almost all of which will be used to compensate victims around the world.  Among the assets were two luxury homes, a yacht and a Bentley car.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >This will now be the first cross-border compensation scheme of its kind in the UK.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Victims are reimbursed 20% of their losses.  They are contacted by local trading standards officers and receive their payouts via a preloaded card that they can spend in stores or deposit into their bank accounts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;This investigation and approach to collecting proceeds from crime sends a clear message that fraudsters can be caught wherever they are based,&#8221; said Lord Michael Bichard, Chairman of National Trading Standards. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >&#8220;It is a testament to the work of the National Trading Standards Scams team, working with local trading standards officers, that money is being returned to so many victims.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Many of those affected would have been repeated victims of fraud and were often too concerned or embarrassed to report it.  They would now be specifically supported by trade inspectors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<div >\n<ul >\n<li>Scammers target under 35s on WhatsApp<\/li>\n<li>The missing crypto queen is one of the FBI&#8217;s ten most wanted people<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >National Trading Standards, which was praised by the US Attorney General for its role in the investigation, said there had been a &#8220;significant decrease&#8221; in the volume of fraudulent mail from the US to the UK as a direct result of the case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >However, scam warnings continue as the rising cost of living and energy bills provide new opportunities for criminals to steal victims&#8217; personal and financial information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Cifas, the fraud prevention organization, said it was seeing a rise in phishing emails pretending to be from utility companies offering savings on energy bills, as well as fuel vouchers, fake jobs and money-making opportunities.  These emails have become more sophisticated, as have the websites used to collect personal information.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div >\n<p >Mike Haley, CEO of Cifas, said: &#8220;Everyone is at risk of being targeted by scammers, but the current economic crisis makes consumers even more vulnerable.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Victims of an international scam that tricked the elderly and sick into gambling for cash prizes that were never won are set to receive payouts. Scammers in the US have tricked people into paying upfront for guaranteed cash prizes that have never been paid. About 3,500 UK victims are being repaid a share of \u00a3530,000 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.1 (Yoast SEO v18.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners - Tahrir News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Victims of an international scam that tricked the elderly and sick into gambling for cash prizes that were never won are set to receive payouts. Scammers in the US have tricked people into paying upfront for guaranteed cash prizes that have never been paid. About 3,500 UK victims are being repaid a share of \u00a3530,000 [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Tahrir News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Tahrir News\",\"description\":\"News all over the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/\",\"name\":\"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners - Tahrir News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Business\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/category\/business\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners\"}]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4\",\"name\":\"megahed\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#personlogo\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"megahed\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners - Tahrir News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners","og_description":"Victims of an international scam that tricked the elderly and sick into gambling for cash prizes that were never won are set to receive payouts. Scammers in the US have tricked people into paying upfront for guaranteed cash prizes that have never been paid. About 3,500 UK victims are being repaid a share of \u00a3530,000 [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/","og_site_name":"Tahrir News","article_published_time":"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/","name":"Tahrir News","description":"News all over the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/","name":"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners - Tahrir News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00","dateModified":"2022-07-19T08:18:47+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/2022\/07\/19\/payouts-for-victims-of-sweepstake-with-no-winners\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Business","item":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/category\/business\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Payouts for victims of sweepstake with no winners"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/5eb9492fbc67154812b39589e826b6e4","name":"megahed","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/#personlogo","inLanguage":"en-US","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0ee3294b28670178246ce92a6679bf959bc435d2fcd9cb9ab078702487c106df?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"megahed"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43912\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tahrir2day.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}