A Florida Woman Was Scammed Out $11,000 By People Claiming to be Arizona Lottery Winners. Now She Wants Justice. Diana Izurieta lost big after receiving a text she was randomly selected to earn $90,000.
By Sam Silverman •
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What appeared to be a random act of kindness ended up costing a Florida woman thousands.
Diana Izurieta claims she was scammed out of $11,000 after receiving a text message stating she was one of 50 people chosen at random to receive $90,000 from the Gilbert, Arizona, couple who won the $474 million Powerball jackpot in May.
The messages instructed her to contact a "Mr. Woodman," to receive the payment, and after doing so, she was instructed to pay various fake transfers and tax fees that she was told she would be reimbursed for once the lottery winnings arrived.
After sending the first $1,000, "then they started asking for credit card numbers and everything," Izurieta told 12 News Phoenix.
Over the course of five months, "Mr. Woodman" squeezed nearly $10,000 more from Izurieta with pressure and false promises.
Once she realized she had been bamboozled, there was nothing she could do to recover her funds, but she still wants whoever scammed her to be brought to justice.
"I just want to put his ass in jail," she told the outlet."I want to put him in jail...somehow."
This isn't the first time someone promised to donate faulty lottery winnings in Arizona.
A similar scam occurred in 2020 when a Glendale, Arizona, couple won $400 million, in which people received fake emails promising people $2 million from the haul, prompting the Arizona Lottery to issue a nationwide warning at the time.
Gregg Edgar, the executive director of the Arizona Lottery told 12 News people should "be leery," of anything that "sounds too good to be true," and said to forward any potential lottery scam to the Arizona Attorney General's office.
