Historic Sam Sharpe Square in Montego Bay is one of the many locations where illicit deals are conducted. The city is grappling with a high crime rate which is said to be fuelled by the illegal lottery-scam activity. - File

Already more than 20 members of the police force and at least 30 civilians have been arrested. The scammer collects the money and immediately breaks off communication with the victim.

THE MULTIMILLION-dollar lottery scam that has gripped western Jamaica for more than five years may have started in a little apartment near the upscale community of Coral Gardens in St James.

But what began as a top-secret operation among a group of friends is now the centre of local and international criminal investigations.

Already more than 20 members of the police force and at least 30 civilians have been arrested in connection with the scam which is believed to have netted the criminals more than US$30 million.

Understanding the genesis

To understand the genesis, evolution and nature of this illicit game, The Sunday Gleaner went to Montego Bay, St James, recently to get answers.

Though the majority of those close to the action were tight-lipped, some were more than willing to spill the beans.

We spoke with a security officer, John, who once worked at a popular remittance agency in Montego Bay, and his friend Jameswho has intimate knowledge of how it began.

"It actually started with them (a group which we shall call 'The Pioneers'). They met an overseas couple, and encouraged this couple to raise funds because they (The Pioneers) had an organisation, some 'charitable' organisation. The couple would raise money and send it. What they (The Pioneers) did was to take pictures to say that was the organisation and they really needed funding," James said.

It didn't work for long, however, as the foreigners found out that they were being conned. With the money no longer coming in, the criminals turned to other sources: telemarketing companies, located in the Montego Bay Free Port. Lists of names, email addresses and telephone numbers were obtained. Stage two was now activated.

The modus operandi was, and still is, to call overseas to tell the 'victim' that he or she has won the lottery or some other betting game but before they can collect the 'winnings', they must send a processing fee. This money is usually sent through a remittance agency.

The scammer collects the money and immediately breaks off communication with the victim. However, there are times when the scammer calls the victim a second time to say more money is needed as the first sum was not enough to process the prize.

James continued: "A friend of mine who was a security detail in the whole operation said the head honcho would employ five or six persons and each person would have two phones. What he did was to rent a house and everybody had a room. He employed even a chef to prepare a meal."

In the mornings, "the employees would be picked up at (a popular fast-food restaurant in Montego Bay) to be taken to their 'job' location ... and everybody would operate from their little room, telling the people to call back for verification".

The victim would return the call, and the employees would tell them how to send the money, and to whom.

Professional behaviour

Whatever questions the victims had were professionally answered, as the employees were well trained. What existed was an incentive system in which the employees were given a portion of the money they made each day, The Sunday Gleaner was told.

According to James: "You as a worker ... you have a quota, and you must make, let's say, a thousand (US) dollars today. If you make beyond your thousand dollars, you get an incentive ... say 10 or 20 thousand dollars more by the end of the week." It was simple, the more persons an employee convinced to send money through the remittance agency, the more money he received from his 'boss'.

"He (the leader) used to operate the 'business' and he would buy cellphones and give to them (the employees) ... and apparently what happened, he showed a friend how it worked ... the other friend showed somebody else, and then they showed this one, a very good friend of theirs, who told everybody, and it got out of control, and everybody wanted a piece of the pie," explained James.

And the pie grew and grew. According to John, "You have professional scammers now. The scam is not about a caller getting a hundred dollars, or 200 hundred dollars or 300 hundred dollars. It's a business."

At one stage, there was a very unholy link between a notorious St James criminal gang and The Pioneers.

In return for protection, The Pioneers gave the gang huge sums of money, which it used to buy guns and ammunition. Both groups were eventually dismantled by the police, but by then the scam had taken root in St James.

"The 'business' is everywhere, from St James to surrounding parishes. Families are supported by it. In many sections of western Jamaica, teenagers drop out of school to become 'entrepreneurs' in the scam," the sources said.

Identifying scammers

According to John, scammers can be easily identified. He argues that the trappings, their swagger and profiling says it all. "From yuh see them, yuh know them ... . When yuh see a car pull up and yuh see the type of person come out of the car, yuh sey, 'Si a scammer yah'."

It is not uncommon to see young people who can barely look over a counter at remittance agencies leaving with wads of money.

"A lot of persons who come inside there don't even collect them money. Some man just come in there and afraid, frighten to collect the money because a scam money. Sometimes, people come inside there and the company can't pay them. Too much money at one go," James said.

Names changed on request.