MegaMillions has been very much in the news recently, smashing the previous record for
the largest lottery jackpot of all time. For the past couple of years rival Powerball had held
the top spot with a jackpot of more than $1.5 billion, but now its American rival has taken
back the crown, beating the previous jackpot record amount in October 2018. With prizes of that magnitude to play for, it’s no wonder that so many people have resorted to scams to
get their hands on that lottery cash. Here are five lottery fakers who tried – and failed – to
scam their way to lottery fortunes.
1. Anne and Alfred Jeevarajah let temptation get the better of them and had to face the
consequences. Pensioner Gwyn Badham-Davies visited the local store in England to see if he had won anything on the lottery. Anne checked his ticket for him and announced that he
had won £10. In fact, the real sum was £156,000 which the shop-keeping couple tried to
claim for themselves, an attempt which saw them wind up in prison.
2. One German woman tried to make out that she had a winning lottery ticket which had
been damaged in the washing machine. Conveniently the date on the ticket had washed
away, while the numbers remained visible. Lottery organisers were able to determine that
another person held the real winning ticket, so this German grandma saw her hopes of a
lottery fortune go down the drain.
3. Some lottery scammers go to a lot more trouble to try and connive their way to a jackpot win. Chief of Security Eddit Tipton managed to use his IT skills to fix the lottery numbers drawn for at least 4 lotteries across the US. His job working for the Multi State Lottery Association allowed him to access and make changes to the relevant programs, but he was caught out when trying to collect a $16.5 million prize and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
4. One lottery prank got out of hand, causing some embarrassment for the hoaxer. A photo
of a man identifying as Nolan Daniels holding a ‘winning’ Powerball ticket appeared on
Facebook, with a message saying he would give one random person a million dollars if they
shared the photo. The 2012 post became Facebook’s most shared at that time, even though it was quickly revealed that the ‘win’ was not genuine.
5. Englishman Howard Walmsley is another who let a lottery lie get out of control. In a bid
to save their ailing marriage Howard told his wife he had won almost £9 million from the
lottery. He seemed to eventually believe the story himself, scamming others out of money
and goods with this fake lottery winning story. Eventually the lie caught up to him and
prison time was the net result.
Faking a lottery win didn’t work out for any of these people, most of whom ended up in jail
instead. A much better option is to try your luck by playing the lottery for real, after all, that is the quickest way to make a million!
