Two Yakima men lose $14,000 to sweepstakes scam

Two men in Yakima lost $14,000 total to a sweepstakes scam this month.

Mike Bastinelli with the Yakima Police Department says one of the men, an 87-year-old, lost $9,000 and the other man lost $5,000. He adds the scammers have continued to get more sophisticated in their ways to convince you to give up your money. In the case of the 87-year-old, Bastinelli said the victim was unsure about the sweepstakes win, so the scammers started giving him phone numbers.

"He had some questions and they asked if he wanted to contact a lawyer and they gave him a number for a lawyer to call and he called that number and he still had some questions. So they asked him if he wanted to call the Federal Gaming Commission, so they gave him the number and he called that number," says Bastinelli.

After calling the numbers to fake locations, he was convinced and handed over his money. Bastinelli says first the scammers asked for $7,000, but later the scammers told him that another person didn't claim their portion of the prize, so he could win even more money if he paid $2,000 more. Officers say that is when he got suspicious and called police.

Unfortunately, Bastinelli says many of the scammers live out of the country and are very hard to track, so there will be a slim chance the two men get their money back.

Police advise there are some legit sweepstakes programs, however, you should never have to pay handling charges, service fees, or taxes up front to receive a prize. Bastinelli's best advice if you get a call you think is a scam, hang up and then let officers know that you believe you just received a phone call. If you are unsure, officers ask you to give them a call and they can determine if the call is a scam or not.