After amassing significant wealth from defrauding unsuspecting North Americans for over a decade, Candice* is desirous of ending her involvement in lottery scamming, but the lure of quick money has kept her trapped in the fast lane.
Candice was introduced to the game by her brother during her final year in high school.
She had seen his life change overnight, from living in a one-bedroom board structure in their sugar-dependent community to owning his own home in a gated community in the neighbouring parish, without having a job.
“I left school because while it could prepare me for the future, I needed a way out now,” she told The Sunday Gleaner. “My now situation was hunger, discrimination, and the many distractions that come with living in the garrison.”
The lottery scam, or advance-fee fraud, is estimated to illegally rake in over $300 million to the Jamaican economy annually – and has been a source of embarrassment for successive governments – and continues to be the main driver of commerce in townships like Candice’s home community.
Unlike other crimes in which residents cooperate with the police in their fight against criminality, many neighbourhoods see the lottery scam as the answer to their harsh economic situation and encourage it.
Targeting mainly the elderly or those with disposable income, particularly in the United States, the scammers telephone their victims and inform them that they have won a drawing or lottery along with other…
