 This is the worst part of the job You get a call from someone and they sound desperate. In this case, it's the daughter of an elderly woman named Margaret Bergman Miss Bergman is a retired schoolteacher lives in a nursing home and has trouble breathing Daughters got her hands full raising two kids of her own trying to take care of her mom, too She called us after visiting her mom one afternoon She found a lot of mail from the Spanish sweepstakes, the London Lotto and the Australian Lottery Mom's checkbook had a lot of entries for tickets No deposits of the winnings though Names are different, but I've heard this story before The scam is simple crooks tell people they can make money playing the lottery in foreign countries They promise better odds tax-free winnings Make it easy to play Now you can call their toll-free number send them a check or use your credit card Some of them even set up websites They promise to hold the tickets and send your winnings overnight Yeah, they promise a lot of things But delivering nothing Their slick ads don't mention that it's illegal to play a foreign lottery in the United States That if you play even once your name will go on a suckers list and you'll get a mailbox full of scam offers Yeah, they also forget to mention that instead of winning Some people lose everything It's the worst part of the job The best part is putting away the people who do this I didn't know who had taken mrs. Bergman savings yet, but I knew his luck was about to change Three here if you come to my office tomorrow, we can discuss this Bruno. Let's not make this dip Jam you want me to call my liars then I have another sort of thing. Oh, just make sure to reach against home. Okay. I'll call you later My lawyer will have your badge I Might be willing to discuss the plea But of course that would depend on the information that you have for all of us So I would suggest that you just answer the inspector's questions and then we can talk about your situation later. I Might be willing to drop the rick again Why don't you give us the rundown on this Australian lottery? How does this work? Oh Well, that's really quite simple We print up these flashy brochure and then we send it out to our list what list? Well, you know our mailing list Older people usually retirees Snowbirds vacationing in Florida that sort of thing Anyway, we tell them that they can play the lottery in Spain or Canada Australia we tell them that the odds are better playing the lottery overseas than if they played the Powerball here in the United States So people will buy 10 20 tickets Then once they bite on that one, we'll put them on another list a new one for suckers and we'll Send them another half dozen mailings usually telling them about the Irish sweepstakes or the English Lido Usually they'll bite on that one too So you're strictly small time just a few bucks here and there Hardly See Once we really get them to bite then we call them and tell them they've actually won Only we need a couple of thousand dollars to pay off the taxes on their winnings before we can send them a check You'd be surprised at how easy it is. So what's your role in all this, mr. Brunan? And we know the checks don't come to you Not directly anyway Well usually set up a small shop somewhere give it a fancy name like international exports incorporated and hire a couple of guys to Pick up the mail cash the checks. Maybe somebody else to work the phones We'll add their name to the suckers list and then sell it for big bucks to another operation You realize you're talking about organized crime, don't you mr. Brunan? Okay? This isn't the Sopranos all right. These are just a couple of people exchanging legitimate mailing lists Which is not against the law last time I checked. It doesn't bother you taking money from these people. Why should it? These people are greedy themselves. They've got piles of money lying around and they want to get rich quick. It's my Duty to take this money from them besides if I didn't do it some other guy would So if you're through sitting in judgment Let's get to the chase Do we have a deal or what? Mr. Brunan you haven't told us anything that we don't already know yet I'm going to need a list of all your associates Including the names of the folks that gave you this mailing list and those that you sell it to We'll see what you have to trade and then we'll discuss a plea Write it up. Check back in a few minutes Currently Brunan's serving five years in a federal prison as part of his plea agreement Unfortunately postal inspectors intercept millions of pieces of mail every year promoting foreign lotteries But many more make it through to consumers and trick people into the scam There are some simple steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim One remember it's illegal to play a foreign lottery in the US if you do you're breaking the law To there are no secrets to winning a foreign lottery. In fact the lotteries themselves usually don't even exist Three if you purchase even one ticket your name will be added to a suckers list And you'll start receiving lots of offers from bogus lotteries or investment opportunities These crooks actually buy and sell these mailing lists to aid their scams For keep your credit card numbers bank accounts and other personal information to yourself scam artists often ask for these on the phone Lastly if you think you've been the victim of one of these scams you need to report it Contact your local United States Postal Inspector You can find us in the phone book or on our website at usps.com Postal inspectors remember if you're tempted to play a foreign lottery you won't win anything But you may lose at all