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A Jamaican lottery scam with St. Louis ties

s_falkow | Flickr

Two St. Louis residents face sentencing in October after pleading guilty to a scam targeting retirees from across the country.

Authorities say 32-year-old Andre DePass and 24-year-old Jayneise Hampton pleaded guilty Monday to several charges. A third suspect, 33-year-old Nollis Hudson of Montego Bay, Jamaica, remains at large.

Court documents say Hudson phoned retirees and told them they had won the Jamaican lottery but needed to electronically transmit or mail funds to pay the taxes on their prize. He allegedly used personal information from the retirees to obtain Social Security funds through prepaid debit cards.

Federal prosecutors say DePass and Hampton kept 20 percent of the money and wired the rest to Hudson in Jamaica.

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