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Honolulu police warn
of 2 scams making rounds


Honolulu police and the Better Business Bureau are warning the public about a lottery swindle that has victimized 32 Hawaii residents this year and a home repair scam that targets the elderly during the holidays.

Police said the home repair scam victimized at least four people last month. One of them is an 87-year-old East Honolulu man who paid $10,000 to men who did shoddy work with inferior products, then left when the man's son began questioning them, said Detective Letha DeCaires, CrimeStoppers coordinator.

Two of the other victims are 87 and 82. Officials believe there are more victims, who are too embarrassed to report they had been victimized.

"That's the scary part. We would all feel duped and scared and silly and really embarrassed to report this," said Anne Deschene, president of the Better Business Bureau.

DeCaires said a male approached the 87-year-old East Honolulu man Nov. 26, offered to paint his house, then received and cashed a $1,000 check from the man to buy supplies.

Two days later he returned demanding another $13,000 and showed the man a contract that the man reportedly signed. The man instead gave him a $9,000 check that was immediately cashed.

Police have a picture, name and description of the man who cashed the first check. But DeCaires said there may be problems prosecuting the suspect for criminal charges. She said the victim wrote the checks freely, there may be a contract and there was some work performed, making the dispute a civil matter.

"We know that it is a scam. We know that it is deceitful. And we're looking to stop these things," she said.

Honolulu City Prosecutor Peter Carlisle said few of these kinds of cases are prosecuted because elderly people might not be able to pursue a case because of health concerns and are less likely to complain or stand up to intimidation.

"We're targeting these people, and, if we get the chance, we would love, love to be able to make an example of some of them with the most severe penalties," Carlisle said.

The perpetrators of the lottery scam contact potential victims by telephone or mail to inform them that they have won a lottery worth between $1 million to $4.2 million. They send worthless stolen checks and in return ask their victims to send them money to cover taxes and fees. The telephone number and address they provide are in Canada.

On Wednesday, two of the bogus winnings checks showed up at Hawaii banks. Luckily, the Hawaii residents who tried to cash them did not send money to Canada, DeCaires said.

The Ontario Provincial Police established PhoneBusters to track deceptive telemarketing calls made from Canada. PhoneBusters reports tracking 61 telephone scam attempts to Hawaii this year, 32 of which were successful.

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