Street Lottery You've Been Scammed

Scam artists, conmen and tricksters,

they trouser an estimated £6 billion every year, from you and me -

the British public.

They don't care who they target or how much damage they cause.

All they want to do is get their mitts

on as much of your cash as they can.

Coming up, the outrageous lottery scam that almost ripped

a family apart.

It nearly destroyed my marriage.

And the corkscrew conmen who used their knowledge of wine

to live the high life at their victims' expense.

-Here we are in New York...

-Having it large!

I'm here to tell you what the conman doesn't want you to know,

how to stay one step ahead of the game and not get scammed.

You might assume that all scam artists these days

apply their trade on the phone or the internet,

where it's easier to hide their faces and their intentions.

But there are still old-fashioned conmen out there who prefer

doing things face to face,

and have the audacity to target people on the street.

Street scams are quite prevalent, and these take the forms

of street gambling

or perhaps selling you perfume or gold.

Many street scams appeal to the fact that we don't want to walk by

and let a bargain go.

But while some street scams are fairly simple, there are others,

like the one I'm about to hear, that are so elaborate

and carefully engineered they could have come

straight off the pages of a Hollywood script.

The man I'm about to meet was targeted

as he was walking down the road.

And the events that followed left him feeling utterly out-of-control.

Sam is 79 years old and lives with his wife in North London.

He originally comes from India but moved to Britain 50 years ago

'and spent most of his working life at the Foreign Office.'

What was your role?

I was a publicity officer,

to popularise the British aid programme

to over 140 countries of the world.

You've devoted your life to helping people all around the world.

Is that something that's very important to you?

It was a very satisfactory job that you have done something.

Sam is now retired, but even AFTER he retired

he continued to provide a service to people in need.

Here, helping anyone who wants to know about citizenship,

or they cannot speak the language, I had been helping them.

-So it's in your nature, even after retirement, to help people.

-Yes.

And people from different countries.

I had been a social worker by nature, you see, from the beginning.

If I can help anyone, I will do so.

Sadly it was precisely this desire to help

that the scammers took advantage of

when they targeted Sam earlier this year.

It all started when Sam was approached by a man claiming

to be from Bhutan, on the border of India and China,

who wanted direction to a nearby solicitor's office.

How did this gentleman appear?

An old man, walking very slowly with a stick.

Just simply, he asked me the name,

if I know the solicitor and the street.

The opening ruse of just asking for help, just appeals

to our good nature. Most people want to help others, and once

you start helping someone, you start forming a bit of a bond with them.

The man didn't speak much English and appeared confused.

As Sam's used to helping foreign nationals in need,

he was keen to pitch in.

The man told him he had a winning lottery ticket

and that the solicitor in question

had promised to give him some money for it.

He simply said, "I am anxious to find the solicitor because he has

"promised to give me £35,000 cash against the Lotto I have won."

Initially it didn't seem a very plausible story.

Most people with a winning lottery ticket would go

and cash it in, not sell it to a solicitor.

But the man told Sam he wasn't interested in the winnings,

he just wanted to get enough money to go back to his country.

He doesn't speaking English, he had no passport,

and he is from Bhutan, and he wants to return to his home.

Sam felt sorry for the man and wanted to help,

but as he didn't know the solicitor and was unfamiliar

with the area they were in, he was at a loss as to what to do.

It was at this moment that a second man appeared.

He was wearing a blue suit with the insignia of a bank.

And he said, "I'm a bank manager, can I help?"

These type of scams, you need what's called a claim of authority,

that's an authority figure who you can believe in.

You don't expect a bank manager to be involved in some intricate scam

so this really starts drawing you in,

that it's a believable, genuine situation that's occurring.

Sam grew up in a traditional family in India,

where professional people like bank managers

are held in very high esteem.

He was immediately impressed by this smartly dressed,

very capable-seeming young man.

-He's presenting himself as a bank manager.

-Yes, he is.

What effect does that have on you?

Well, the fact was that I trusted him.

As the foreign man didn't speak much English,

the bank manager then asked Sam to translate for him.

He said, "I live here, I know this solicitor.

"He's not a good man, and please tell him not to trust this person."

What's quite clear from what's happened here, it is rehearsed,

that each of the individuals in the scam know their part,

they're playing their part well.

And they are just creating a world around the victim

which is very credible.

The first stage of the scam had now been achieved.

The scammers had appealed to Sam's good nature to draw him in,

then they'd given him a role to play - that of interpreter.

And now the bank manager moved on to the next stage.

He said, "Could you come and sit down in the car

"so that we can sort this thing out?"

Then he said, "Can I see the Lotto ticket?"

What's happening here is the scammer's taking control.

He's a figure of authority, he's now going to tell everyone what to do.

And that puts him in the position of power

and you in a position of weakness.

The foreign man produced the lottery ticket

and the bank manager then put in a call to the Lottery helpline

to check whether the man really had won.

I think it's important that, as part of this scenario,

that there's some so-called independent verification

that it's a winning ticket.

He said, "They have checked, yes, you have won £300,000.

"You come and collect it."

Yet despite this huge win, the foreign man was insistent

that he just wanted the £35,000 the solicitor had promised

so he could get back to Bhutan.

He simply went on repeating, "I want to go home, I want to go home."

I simply thought that he'd want to go home

due to certain circumstances and he's not happy in this country.

At this point the bank manager presented Sam with a proposition.

He suggested they could give the foreign man the £35,000

instead of the solicitor, and then split the lottery winnings 50/50.

In a way, though, did you think to yourself,

"I'm doing the same thing as the solicitor?

"I'm giving him less than the value of the ticket."

Did that not enter your mind at all?

No, I think I was totally mesmerised.

Whatever he kept on saying, I went on doing,

without even asking any questions.

In hindsight Sam knows that what the bank manager

was suggesting was morally wrong. But at the time, and with everything

happening so fast, he found himself agreeing to the scheme.

We went and got a bundle of notes. He said, "I have got £18,000.

"You must be having some money."

I said, "Yes, I have got nearly £12,000.

And he said, "You can give it to him, go and collect the money."

Showing the money is the one thing

that adds huge credibility to this scenario.

You see the money,

and I think you start almost salivating

about what lots of money looks like.

Sam was now so caught up in the situation,

he began thinking about how this money could benefit his family.

My daughter, she works in the hospital.

I thought I'd help them ease a little

because they are very hard up, with two children to bring up.

So he agreed to withdraw the money.

And now, as is so often the case with scams, the pressure was on.

The one thing the scammer doesn't want you to do is stop,

think and reflect on what is happening.

Is this a likely scenario, are these people credible?

If you haven't got time to think, you're completely taken away by it.

The scammer told Sam that he would drive him

to the bank to withdraw the money. Sam agreed to this,

and withdrew all his savings.

The scammers now had £12,000 of Sam's hard-earned money in their car.

But this still wasn't enough for them.

Appearing to realise that he wasn't getting a good deal here,

the old man suddenly piped up, and said he wanted more money.

The scammer will try to get as much money out of the victim as they can.

-They want to wipe them out.

-He told me, can I take my ring off?

I took my ring off and give it to him.

Can you tell me about that ring? Where did it come from?

That ring was my mother's. A very heavy ring.

It must be nearly £2,000.

The scammers now had Sam's life savings

AND a precious family heirloom in their possession.

All that remained now was for them to make their getaway.

But first they needed to find a way to get rid of Sam.

And this is when the foreign man's acting skills really came into their own.

-He said, "This man has puked."

-Physically sick.

-Yes.

The foreign man was clearly in a bad way

and started shouting out the name of a medicine.

Again, in his eagerness to help,

Sam agreed to go to the chemist to get it for him.

In the cold light of day this scenario seems farcical.

But Sam had been quickly and cleverly manipulated by the two men,

and had complete trust in them.

By this stage, you've gone through, been in the bank,

seen the lottery ticket, seen the cash, you 100% believe

in these people and the scenario.

Having been deceived into thinking he was helping

the foreign man and would also be reaping the rewards

of a substantial lottery win, Sam set off to collect the medicine.

But when he came back, he was in for a nasty shock.

When I came back, they had gone.

Sam had handed over his life savings and a precious ring

given to him by his mother. He was now left with nothing.

At the moment where it had really sunk in, what had taken place,

can you describe your feelings?

I was very unhappy and I was very sorry of my stupidity,

the way I behaved.

The fact that a decent man like Sam was persuaded to go along

with a scheme that was morally wrong shows just how manipulative

scammers can be, and, for Sam, it's almost as hard to bear

as the loss of the money.

Can you tell me what that £12,000 means to you?

All my savings gone.

We wanted to go on holiday,

we had to cancel because we have got nothing left.

We had a lot of problems in the family, me and my wife,

and we couldn't reconcile... for a very long time.

It nearly destroyed my marriage.

Can you tell me what the loss of your mother's ring means?

That was the only thing,

which she, with great love, saved for me

and gave it to me.

And I...just lost.

-That must be very hard to take.

-Very hard.

Sam has learnt a bitter lesson,

but he's not the only person to have been taken in.

It appears that the Asian community in London are being

specifically targeted by these scammers,

and many have been persuaded to hand over their entire life savings.

I know maybe what you are feeling is,

at some point greed took over.

If you look at the decisions you made, they were largely due -

it seems to me -

to your desire to help because you wanted to help him,

the old gentleman,

and you saw opportunity to help your daughter, and you took that.

Yes.

The reason, it appears to me, the scam worked on you

is because it was very clever.

Sam reported the crime to the police,

but unfortunately the scammers who did this to him are still at large.

So how can YOU avoid the same or similar fraudsters?

These scams rely on the fact that they are pressured, urgent,

lots of things going on, and that's confusing.

So the thing to do is to step outside of it, to stop

and think for a moment, are you being scammed?

So don't allow yourself to be pressured into anything.

When somebody in the street starts asking you

for thousands of pounds, you've got to think

there's something very dodgy about this situation.

Don't hand over any money in the street at all.

And finally...

If you think you've been scammed on the street, I'd say,

don't be too embarrassed about it, many people are,

tell a police officer or call Action Fraud.

We need to stop the next person from being scammed.

Yeah. I like wine.

Lots of us do, that's why we spend £7 billion a year on it.

And wine CAN make a good investment if you know what you're doing.

The important word there, of course, being "can".

Because it also CAN make an excellent scam.

Meet some likely lads from North London.

-Here we are, in New York.

-Having it large!

This is the roof of our hotel.

It is wild here in New York.

Kicking back on the rooftop of a swanky hotel,

it looks like success has gone to their heads.

We're making it large!

And the secret of their success?

-Done!

-The Bordeaux Wine Trading Company.

But some of these lads living the high life are lowlifes.

The Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd was a scam.

While the guys were filling their glasses,

they left scores of investors, like Lesley here, with theirs empty,

when they took their money and bought no wine.

Conned out of thousands of pounds, Lesley was obviously...

Bitter, sad...that people live that sort of lifestyle,

and take advantage of people like myself, who are legitimate.

Back in 2006, investing in expensive wine was seen as a smart bet,

and particularly En Primeur wine.

This process involves speculating on the future value of a wine.

They are investing in five or six well-known chateaus in France.

And investing in a wine that is produced by those five chateaus.

In the space of just a few years, En Primeur wine can triple in value,

making it attractive to investors.

But it's the length of time it takes to produce this wine

that attracts the scam artists.

People will invest money whilst it's in the barrel,

they will pay the company the money upfront

and not expect to see that wine for 18 months, 24 months.

That gives the scammers 18 to 24 months to live

a lifestyle that they can only dream of, before disappearing.

Lesley had been investing in wine for six years, and was no fool.

He'd actually doubled his money in that time,

largely by gambling on En Primeur wine.

You get certain tips from people who are in the know,

as to whether you should go ahead

and buy that particular En Primeur.

So he thought nothing of it when a salesman he already knew

called him up with an attractive offer.

The Bordeaux Wine Company was where I started investing.

And one of the salesmen, or the wine broker,

a chap called Ose, that's all I knew him as.

But he was with Bordeaux Wine Company, and then I had a call

from him to say that he had moved to Bordeaux Wine Trading Company.

I didn't actually notice the word "trading" when he contacted me.

At this point we should make it clear that Bordeaux Wine Company

is a proper, respectable company,

whereas the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd was anything but.

Not that Lesley was to know at the time, when Ose gave him the spiel.

Ose knew a lot about fine wines.

I had no doubts whatsoever. I invested £15,000.

Lesley was well aware he wouldn't get his wine for 18 months,

but when that time passed and he'd heard nothing, he became uneasy.

And then I made a search on the internet.

Lesley saw that other investors were complaining

about the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd,

all saying that no wine had arrived.

That's what brought me in touch with the police.

The complaints came from across the country,

but the office was in Potters Bar, on the Hertfordshire police's patch.

The job of looking into them fell to financial investigator Pete Thody.

The main investigations that we would conduct initially is

to have a look at the company bank accounts

because that will tell a story

of how that company is conducting itself.

So, the first step was to get a court order from a judge

that allowed them to examine the company's bank accounts.

The results confirmed their suspicions.

The expenditure of the company directors was based on

a lavish lifestyle and boozy nights out, flash cars, holidays,

Rolexes, champagne, the works.

Lesley was one of those cruelly deceived by the men.

From the first time that I spoke to PC Pete Thody,

I felt as though someone was looking after me.

He didn't promise the world,

but he said that it was a case that was being pursued.

Although Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd

had closed their main offices trying to cover their tracks,

Peter sniffed out three other places they were renting.

The police raided these premises, seizing documents for evidence.

They also searched the homes of the company directors

and brought them in for questioning.

One of them was Oseghale Hayble - known as Ose -

the guy who talked Lesley out of his money.

After questioning suspects and examining the paperwork,

Peter identified Ose and another company director,

Paul Craven, as the main men behind the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company.

He also discovered the idea for the scam was dreamt up

when Ose and Craven were working together at a legitimate wine firm.

The management of the initial company

they were all employed at led a very luxurious lifestyle, and I believe

that the suspects in this case yearned for this kind of lifestyle.

So Paul and Ose left to set up their own company.

They had the knowledge and contacts, and as Peter looked into the methods

of Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd, it was easy to see

how they'd conned investors such as Lesley into funding them.

The company...the first contact seemed legitimate,

the paperwork seemed fine.

There was a brochure detailing the company,

and their role in the market.

All very nice. Puts the investor at ease with the company.

And clients got further reassurance

when they were sent ownership certificates - bogus, of course.

As Peter built up his case and stuck the corkscrew

into Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd,

he found other criminal enterprises came crawling out of the woodwork.

I believed, at that time,

it was one wine company with three suspects at the time.

Um, I didn't think it would lead on to another two scams.

Yes, he found links to two other dodgy wine companies.

This was a huge scam network.

At first the investigation was focused on the three main men

behind Bordeaux Wine Trading Company.

Paul Craven, a director who was later cleared of any wrongdoing,

and Oseghale Hayble.

These people were all arrested

in relation to Bordeaux Wine Trading Company,

but prior to their arrest,

Oseghale Hayble set up International Wine Commodities,

along with Benedict Moruthoane.

International Wine Commodities operated

in exactly the same manner as Bordeaux Wine Trading Company.

Which is to say they again used clever sales techniques

to fool investors into sending cash. They bought no wine,

and instead spend the proceeds going out on the razzle.

Benedict Moruthoane was arrested and Ose rearrested for the goings-on

at International Wine Commodities, and the company shut down.

Whilst they were on bail for those matters, Benedict Moruthoane

then went to set up Templar Vintners Ltd, under a false name - Dominic.

We caught that company fairly early on, and managed to close it down.

When the dust had finally settled, Peter worked out

just how much the trio of dodgy wine companies

had conned out of people.

Templar Vinters Ltd - five victims lost £50,000 between them.

International Wine Commodities Ltd -

40 investors done for £800,000.

And the scam company that started it all,

the Bordeaux Wine Trading Company Ltd,

had taken 50 victims for well over £1 million -

15,000 of it Lesley's money.

I was very embarrassed by the fact that I had been scammed.

Um, it's something quite...

You don't really want to share that information with too many people.

So, a case of three fake companies,

scores of victims and millions stolen eventually ended up in court.

And, after two trials, the three main men were found guilty.

Oseghale Hayble, jailed for five years.

Paul Craven, jailed for six years.

And Benedict Moruthoane, the man who had the audacity to set up

another fake wine firm while on bail, banged up for 7.5 years.

I'm very happy with the conclusion of this case.

I think the sentences would send out severe warnings to anyone else

that's considering getting involved in such a scam.

To protect yourself from the advances of the scammer,

you can find out more information at -

Before we go, there's just time to tell you

about some of the latest scams out there.

Today we're looking at an employment con,

where scammers offer you a job and then ask YOU to pay for it.

Scams that target the unemployed are particularly cruel.

Yes, home-working schemes are a problem.

People that go for home-working schemes can't fit in

with ordinary work hours, or need to be working at home

because they've got someone they are looking after.

What would we see in the beginning of the scam?

They would be offering you a job,

and that's what you think you're buying into.

-So you pay an upfront fee to be allowed to work.

-Yes.

-I have a horrible feeling about what comes next.

-There is no work.

So, what should I be looking out for to avoid these?

The key is the upfront fee.

There's no other sort of employment where you have to pay

in order to work,

and it's always worth trying to research anything that you see,

and check on things like Action Fraud's website to see

if this is a known scam.

So if someone asks you to pay upfront for the privilege

of doing a job, don't do it.

The reason we work is to earn our bread and butter.

And you should be working for pay, not paying to work.

Fraudsters will for ever be coming up with new ways to get you

to part with your cash, but armed with a little bit of knowledge,

you could be one step ahead of them.

Stay safe. I'll see you next time.

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