SoCal widow fleeced in lottery scam

ANAHEIM, Calif., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- Police say they are looking for a team of con artists who allegedly swindled a Southern California widow in a lottery scam.

Maria Torres, 71, of Anaheim, told police she lost more than $5,000 in a scheme that began when someone asked her for directions to a church last week.

"I really thought they were Christians trying to help an old lady but the whole time they wanted my money," Torres told the Orange County (Calif.) Register.

The newspaper said Wednesday Torres was approached outside an Anaheim store by a man who asked for directions to a Pentecostal church. He claimed he needed help figuring out a letter he said he received informing him he had won $200,000 in the California lottery.

Another passerby joined in the supposed chance encounter and hatched a plan to claim the money for the winner, who said he was in the country illegally. The deal resulted in Torres handing over the cash as a "security deposit" to the three men who then ditched her in a shopping center parking lot.

Anaheim police said they were looking for a red Toyota Camry in their investigation. The two alleged swindlers were described as Hispanic males in their 30s.