BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts man is headed to prison for running a false lottery scheme that scammed a woman out of more than $120,000.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says 34-year-old Kemal Barnes, a Jamaican national from Malden, was sentenced Monday in Boston federal court to more than a year behind bars. He pleaded guilty to mail fraud in April.
The office says Barnes contacted an elderly woman in Texas in 2015 and convinced her that she’d won a lottery prize worth millions of dollars. He told her that in order to claim her prize, she had to send cash payments for lottery taxes and fees.
Prosecutors say the victim’s son contacted law enforcement. Authorities executed a search warrant at Barnes’ home that found computers and a cellphone with a voiceover application.
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