Police say two people fall for million-dollar swindle

A man arrested in Florida and jailed in Bay Minette is linked to a Jamaican lottery scam that swindled two Foley victims out of more than $1 million in cash and credit card charges, according to police.

Stanley Samuel Walker, 71, of Kingston, Jamaica, was being held in the Baldwin County Corrections Center on Tuesday with bail set at $350,000, Foley police Cpl. Tony Nelson said.

Walker is a suspect in a scheme in which victims were told they had won large jackpots, but had to first send money to cover taxes and fees.

Walker was arrested in Fort Pierce, Fla., on July 22, and extradited to Baldwin County on Oct. 25, according to a Foley police statement. He is charged with first-degree theft of property and second-degree theft of property.

"We know of two victims here, but there are probably others who haven't come forward yet," Nelson said. "It's not just centralized in Baldwin County, it's all over the United States."

Nelson said that a large network ran the scam, and that Walker was one of the members.

One of the Foley victims told the Press-Register that a man who called himself David Global contacted his wife several months ago and said that she had won $48 million in a sweepstakes.

He said that his wife sent the scammers about $200,000 from their personal bank accounts and ran up credit card bills of $500,000 to deliver them more.

"She cleaned out everything I had and now I've got the credit card companies all over me," said the man, who spoke to the newspaper on condition of anonymity. "At this point in my life, I can't make another $500,000. All I've got left is bankruptcy."

In May, U.S. and Jamaican authorities announced the formation of a cooperative effort to combat such scams. The effort is known as the Jamaican Operations Linked Telemarketing Task Force or JOLT, according to a statement by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

CONTINUED 1 | 2 | 3 Next