Telemarketer Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $10 Million International Fraudulent Sweepstakes

Telemarketer Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $10 Million International Fraudulent Sweepstakes Scheme


A telemarketer was sentenced to 63 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release today for his role in a $10 million telemarketing scheme that defrauded primarily elderly victims in the United States from call centers in Costa Rica.

Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U. S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray of the Western District of North Carolina, Inspector in Charge David M. McGinnis of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s (USPIS) Charlotte Divison, Special Agent in Charge Matthew D. Line of IRS Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI) and Special Agent in Charge John A. Strong of the FBI’s Charlotte Field Office made the announcement.

Carlin Woods, 35, of Merrillville, Indiana, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Max Cogburn Jr. of the Western District of North Carolina. Woods pleaded guilty on May 15, 2017, to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, one count of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

According to admissions made as part of his plea agreement, Woods worked in a call center in Costa Rica in which co-conspirators, who falsely posed as employees of U.S. government agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Customs and Boder Protection and the IRS, contacted victims in the United States to tell them that that they had won a substantial “sweepstakes” prize. After convincing victims, many of whom were elderly and vulnerable, that they stood to receive a significant financial reward, Woods and his co-conspirators fraudulently told victims that they needed to make up-front payments for a “refundable insurance fee” before collecting their supposed prize. The members of the conspiracy used a variety of means to conceal their true identities, such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technology, which made it appear that they were calling from Washington, D.C., and other places in the United States.

Read more: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/telemarketer-sentenced-prison-connection-10-million-international-fraudulent-sweepstakes