Cheat the Lottery Winner

[Hispo]

One million dollars, really?

Around half of that after taxes.

Who in the world would ever consider to trust that amount of money to anyone like that?

You cannot blame those who are extremely worried about their security.

I would have asked the people behind the lottery and the regulators simply not to put my personal information out there (regarding this prize).

Rules and regulations regarding this differ from state to state so you cannot just say that when you're in a jurisdiction where they're allowed to publish your information.

The real winner in the OP bought a ticket in New York and it appears that the state doesn't allow winners to claim anonymously.

Thanks for the information. Just a couple of things I would like to say.
It is insane that taxes could take that much after someone winning the lottery, I would have guessed it was only around 15%-25%.
Also, it is reasonable someone would rather to claim such prize anonymously on the eyes of the public, not the government, there is just so many people who are dangerous out there...

the United States sure has strange regulations, it kinda goes against common sense. 

[ethereumhunter]

When you're dealing with centralized company, you must know if there's no way you can become anonymous because they will ask your KYC in the future, even it's not written in their rules or terms. Lottery, slot, and any other gambling form will get controlled by centralized party since the funds belong to them, they have 100% control over the money and it's up to them to pay or not to the winner. If you think your identity is more valuable than the winning prize, the gambler shouldn't try to join the lottery.

Not trying to participate in the lottery is the choice of each person. Where we are not forced to buy lottery tickets, we are worried about requests to do KYC from casinos and vice versa. The people who bought the lottery initially probably never thought that the casino would ask them to do KYC, especially if they won a lot of money. And some people won't think about KYC and will do it when they win. But in the case of @OP, we shouldn't have to ask anyone for help to take the winning money and we should take it ourselves.

[letteredhub]

When you're dealing with centralized company, you must know if there's no way you can become anonymous because they will ask your KYC in the future, even it's not written in their rules or terms. Lottery, slot, and any other gambling form will get controlled by centralized party since the funds belong to them, they have 100% control over the money and it's up to them to pay or not to the winner. If you think your identity is more valuable than the winning prize, the gambler shouldn't try to join the lottery.

Not trying to participate in the lottery is the choice of each person. Where we are not forced to buy lottery tickets, we are worried about requests to do KYC from casinos and vice versa. The people who bought the lottery initially probably never thought that the casino would ask them to do KYC, especially if they won a lot of money. And some people won't think about KYC and will do it when they win. But in the case of @OP, we shouldn't have to ask anyone for help to take the winning money and we should take it ourselves.

Why should anyone shy away from KYC when a handsome amount of money is involved, it was for the money you participated in the lottery and now the money is here so why let KYC stand between you and your money.  @OP wanted to keep anonymity but went he was cheated of his actual amount of money to be paid him he now decides to jump out of the dark. To me he was just being stupid and reckless with the whole matter from the initial.

[Mauser]

The valuable lesson that can be learned from the story above is that if you want to remain anonymous for your lottery winnings, do it yourself, and don't entrust money-related matters to other people ^{(even if that person is someone close to you)}

if i were am victim, i will not reconcile with that cheating cousin, unless she returns all my winnings that she has used, how about you?

What a sad story, taking advantage of a person like that. And even if she returned 317k USD, what happened to the other 220k USD? It's all gone or did they manage to retrieve the rest of the money? I feel like that people are not willing to learn from such stories. Every few years there seems to be a story where family members betray each other for a money. A lottery winning is a life changing event that will let people disregard everything. In my country there is a saying that any friendship will stop once there is enough money involved. That is why we should never put a friend or family member in such a position where they have easy access to our money. I would probably never speak to my cousin again if he stole 500k USD from me. It's one thing to come and ask for money after winning the lottery, but stealing all of it is a nogo. Even if she returns the money to me, how can you trust someone like that again?  

[jostorres]

if i were am victim, i will not reconcile with that cheating cousin, unless she returns all my winnings that she has used, how about you?

Most people find it difficult to be honest when it comes to money, it doesn't matter if the dishonesty will be done to those closest to them if he is not an honest person and has the opportunity to do that then he will do it. That is why we must be able to know the character of the person we are going to trust and it is a pity that he has to pay a heavy price for trusting someone wrong. If it were me, I would prefer to move on and not care about what has happened and believe that good things will come back if I can let go of what needs to be let go.

It is sad but this is true. In fact it's easy for someone to do a bad thing to the person that they know the most because when they get caught out, they think they won't be punished hard than if they have done the act on random people. Sometimes we think some people are trusted enough but we are wrong. They are only good at hiding their real intentions.

Oh well, I guess it's better to not put trust easily even if the person is your family members. Moving on must be the best thing to do here but let's admit it, that it's also hard to do if we are on the same situation but time heals as they say so we won't notice it later on that we are slowly coping up.

[klidex]

Why should anyone shy away from KYC when a handsome amount of money is involved, it was for the money you participated in the lottery and now the money is here so why let KYC stand between you and your money.  @OP wanted to keep anonymity but went he was cheated of his actual amount of money to be paid him he now decides to jump out of the dark. To me he was just being stupid and reckless with the whole matter from the initial.

Those who avoid and don't like KYC are people who don't want to provide their personal data information on the grounds that they are afraid that their personal data will be misused by certain parties.
But actually, if the person asking for KYC is a trusted and reputable platform, I don't think it's a problem to give it. Moreover, if KYC is requested when making a withdrawal transaction with a large enough amount of money, you have to provide the KYC that has been requested.
However, what often becomes a problem is if the platform does not provide information at the beginning when registering that there are KYC requirements when making large withdrawals and this must be corrected again so that there are no disappointments from every gambler who uses the platform.

[rahmad2nd]

The valuable lesson that can be learned from the story above is that if you want to remain anonymous for your lottery winnings, do it yourself, and don't entrust money-related matters to other people ^{(even if that person is someone close to you)}

if i were am victim, i will not reconcile with that cheating cousin, unless she returns all my winnings that she has used, how about you?

What a sad story, taking advantage of a person like that. And even if she returned 317k USD, what happened to the other 220k USD? It's all gone or did they manage to retrieve the rest of the money? I feel like that people are not willing to learn from such stories. Every few years there seems to be a story where family members betray each other for a money. A lottery winning is a life changing event that will let people disregard everything. In my country there is a saying that any friendship will stop once there is enough money involved. That is why we should never put a friend or family member in such a position where they have easy access to our money. I would probably never speak to my cousin again if he stole 500k USD from me. It's one thing to come and ask for money after winning the lottery, but stealing all of it is a nogo. Even if she returns the money to me, how can you trust someone like that again?  

At least the victim didn't lose everything, he still got 317k USD. it's just that, he lost his relative for tricking him. this case is over, the woman must be held accountable for her actions by going to jail. there are many lessons that we learn from Op's story, not only related to the winning money from the lottery.

You know, maybe we ourselves can be the perpetrators of the fraud. because, temptation will always come when opportunity approaches. the woman who is told in this case, whether she realizes it or not. he is tempted by something that does not belong to him, the strong urge to claim lottery money that does not belong to him makes him not think rationally. in the end, he schemed and hatched a plan to trick his own kin.
Unfortunately, his sinister scenario was uncovered and now he is being held accountable for his actions. there is a lesson we can learn, that money can be disastrous just like the proverb you mentioned.

[CryptoHeadlineNews]

Argueta, who lived in Virginia at the time, agreed to claim the prize on the victim’s behalf and drove to New York to receive the winnings.

Within weeks, Argueta reportedly went to deliver the NYS Lottery paperwork to her cousin, which said the price winnings totaled $20,000. Along with the paperwork, she handed her cousin an envelope with $13,436 in cash, and said the rest was held for taxes.

The victim found a press release from the NYS Lottery website saying Argueta claimed the $1 million prize and received a lump-sum payout of $537,440 after taxes, the DA’s office said.

The valuable lesson that can be learned from the story above is that if you want to remain anonymous for your lottery winnings, do it yourself, and don't entrust money-related matters to other people ^{(even if that person is someone close to you)}

if i were am victim, i will not reconcile with that cheating cousin, unless she returns all my winnings that she has used, how about you?

That was really bad of that cousin of his, and this very act now shows that not everybody you call a relation, friend or cousin can be trusted when it comes to issue of money. Because if you really want to test loyalty, use money, and  you will be surprise to see their true colours. However, giving him $13,436 out of $537,440 is the worst thing he could ever have done, and if I'm to be in the winners shoe, I bet you this cousin of mine will pay me all my money the very moment I found out the lottery winning was $1million and $537,440 paid after tax deducted.

But one question I will like to ask is this.. "How did the user knew he had won and yet didn't know how much that was involved ?"

[uneng]

But one question I will like to ask is this.. "How did the user knew he had won and yet didn't know how much that was involved ?"

It was a scratch-off ticket which immediately displayed he won 1$ million dollars, as soon as he scratched it. So he called the woman to receive the prize for him. Due to taxes to the government, she should have sent the winner-cousin 487.440$, and grabbed 50.000$ for herself, as he promised to give her that comission for the task of receiving the prize.

However, she just lied to him saying the prize was only worth 20.000$, and almost 7000$ were used to pay taxes, so she sent him 13.436$.

Probably the man got suspicious about the situation and investigated further, reaching to the lottery official website, which displayed the woman had really received the 1$ million dollars prize, or $537.440 after taxes. After that, legal action was taken.

[348Judah]

We have been saying continuously on this case that the cousin cheated the winner but i believe the whole of this wouldn't have turned a show if the gambler had thought about doing it twice, he involved the wrong person in the name of being a family member and still yet you don't want your own family or the public to know, i think he had already made the wrong choice already since he could have informed the casino of his anonymity concerning the claiming maybe they would have respected his opinion and tlgo along with him.

[milewilda]

We have been saying continuously on this case that the cousin cheated the winner but i believe the whole of this wouldn't have turned a show if the gambler had thought about doing it twice, he involved the wrong person in the name of being a family member and still yet you don't want your own family or the public to know, i think he had already made the wrong choice already since he could have informed the casino of his anonymity concerning the claiming maybe they would have respected his opinion and tlgo along with him.

Who had really have thought that the ones would be messing up is your relative or someone who is close? You wouldnt really be that mindful that much on what are the possibilities that could happen because you trusted him/her so much and this is why you do made out a choice but things turns out to be messy because there are people who cant just resist when it comes to money and this is the sad thing.
If you are really that minding about anonymity then you should really be that aware that it would be ones exposed once your name is been known and there's no able on hiding it out.
It would be worth if you do just claim it for yourself and wont tend to share it out nor entrust it into other people.

[Finestream]

There will be no reconciliation from me if that were done to me. I don't get why people need to hand financial matters over to other people that clearly aren't professionals. No matter how closely related you guys might be, if something involves money, that blood connection is at risk of being severed due to greed and lust for money. Luckily, the winner still got more than half of the winnings, because if not then that will be a long court battle or worse, violence might ensue.

This would have been avoided if the winner traveled to collect his/her winnings and just kept a low profile.

The winner is also at fault because he never make an effort to travel knowing its a huge amount that he should personally received. But instead he let someone to do it for him knowing that it could create temptation since it’s big sum of money that is involved. So both have their own faults. This should serve a lesson to never entrust money matters to someone because it will only cause some troubles later on, except if he trusted a loyal friend to do it for him. But in either way, this is always a bad practice that leads to cheating and dishonesty.

[libert19]

if i were am victim, i will not reconcile with that cheating cousin, unless she returns all my winnings that she has used, how about you?

It was mistake on victim's behalf for trusting other person and stupidity on Argueta's part for fucking up easy $50k.

If I were to be in victim's position I would satsify myself with justification that lesser amount received was cost for the lesson learned.

[ethereumhunter]

When you're dealing with centralized company, you must know if there's no way you can become anonymous because they will ask your KYC in the future, even it's not written in their rules or terms. Lottery, slot, and any other gambling form will get controlled by centralized party since the funds belong to them, they have 100% control over the money and it's up to them to pay or not to the winner. If you think your identity is more valuable than the winning prize, the gambler shouldn't try to join the lottery.

Not trying to participate in the lottery is the choice of each person. Where we are not forced to buy lottery tickets, we are worried about requests to do KYC from casinos and vice versa. The people who bought the lottery initially probably never thought that the casino would ask them to do KYC, especially if they won a lot of money. And some people won't think about KYC and will do it when they win. But in the case of @OP, we shouldn't have to ask anyone for help to take the winning money and we should take it ourselves.

Why should anyone shy away from KYC when a handsome amount of money is involved, it was for the money you participated in the lottery and now the money is here so why let KYC stand between you and your money.  @OP wanted to keep anonymity but went he was cheated of his actual amount of money to be paid him he now decides to jump out of the dark. To me he was just being stupid and reckless with the whole matter from the initial.

That's because we've seen many cases of identity abuse of people being used for illegal things. Apart from that, there are also cases of the identity of people being sold on the black market that they can use to falsify data for things that are against the law. By playing at a casino, especially a crypto casino, we must be very careful about handing over our personal identity to a second or third party and ensure that they can take good care of it. The action taken in the story was that he did not dare to receive his winnings, so he asked for help from other people, which turned out to be a scam.

[pawanjain]

Another example of why we should not trust even our blood relative when it comes to dealing with financial matters.
Money is something which can turn a brother against brother. This is why I tend to handle all my money related matters myself.
It can be anything but we should practice to do all things by ourselves.

Yeah, the most cruel and greedy thing was his cousin deduct a tax on the small money that she gave just to show it as legit winnings because tax applied. I believe Argueta decided to return the money after the real winner give a threat to him because a simple case that will subpoena his bank account details will be caught her and enough to face jail time.

There’s no way to become anonymous on claiming lottery prize since anyone in the lottery board can tract all the connection of the cousins to get the info of real winner if there’s really someone who will be interested on the prize money.

Yes ofcourse, there's no way Argueta could have escaped from this situation easily.
As mentioned earlier, she was caught as the winning amount was found in her bank account.
It was then transferred to the winner as she made a police complaint.
Argueta should have known that she would be caught if she commits such a mistake.

[nimogsm]

If you want to remain anonymous, don't gamble at land-based casinos but opt for online crypto casinos so you don't have to bother withdrawing your winnings. Even if you are asked to do KYC, only the casino will know who you are and the people around you won't.

And if I am a victim, even though he has returned all winnings, I will not communicate with him because he has been dishonest in helping me. I'd rather do it myself than ask for help from other people who might cheat me later.

identity verification is the best option in such a situation.So you can be sure that no relative will take away your winnings.In this topic, they correctly said: where big money even close people can betray.So you need to conduct all financial affairs only alone and be sure that no one will get access to your accounts.

[Fivestar4everMVP]

If you want to remain anonymous, don't gamble at land-based casinos but opt for online crypto casinos so you don't have to bother withdrawing your winnings. Even if you are asked to do KYC, only the casino will know who you are and the people around you won't.

And if I am a victim, even though he has returned all winnings, I will not communicate with him because he has been dishonest in helping me. I'd rather do it myself than ask for help from other people who might cheat me later.

identity verification is the best option in such a situation.So you can be sure that no relative will take away your winnings.In this topic, they correctly said: where big money even close people can betray.So you need to conduct all financial affairs only alone and be sure that no one will get access to your accounts.

In the first place, it is even a mistake to involve a family member in your gambling activities, let alone allowing any of them access to your gambling account.
Take me as an example, I gamble but none of my family members know I gamble, if in the future, by chance and luck I win a huge amount of money, I will cash in on it without letting my family members know anything, if they inquire to know how such a huge amount of money came by, I simply tell them that one of my investments paid off.. This days, no body can be trusted, even down to my wife and kids, I am definitely working hard to give them a good life, but I do not trust them to handle my stuff the way I would handle them, so while I'm still here, alive and in charge, I handle my stuffs myself.

[348Judah]

The lottery winner cheated himself because if the wall does not crack there won't be an opportunity for the wall gecko to penetrate in, there are better ways to handle such than how he did due to negligence, he has learnt his own lesson the hard way, if he had gone to the extent of putting something down to serves as an agreement in which they will both signed then he can use it up against him on legal action but to say the fact the winner has not behaved being professional at all right ftom the start, we should not completely rely on people when it comes to dealing with money.

[Wakate]

This story sounds like a script because this is not that clear to me at all. Does it means that Agueta has not parent at all that you will entrust her ticket with a cousin that do not even respect her to the extend of collecting the prize and hiding a large amount of money for himself.
Why would she gamble when she/he knows that hiding her identity is the best option for her. Now the lesson had been learnt to never trust anyone not even your father or mother. Things might goes wrong anytime and you might be the next victim if we don't pick up some lessons from the story.

[ethereumhunter]

If you want to remain anonymous, don't gamble at land-based casinos but opt for online crypto casinos so you don't have to bother withdrawing your winnings. Even if you are asked to do KYC, only the casino will know who you are and the people around you won't.

And if I am a victim, even though he has returned all winnings, I will not communicate with him because he has been dishonest in helping me. I'd rather do it myself than ask for help from other people who might cheat me later.

identity verification is the best option in such a situation.So you can be sure that no relative will take away your winnings.In this topic, they correctly said: where big money even close people can betray.So you need to conduct all financial affairs only alone and be sure that no one will get access to your accounts.

That is the best choice we have to make rather than risk being betrayed, which could result in our relationship with that person not being good. But if we decide to take the money alone, we can ask for their help to accompany us or we can ask security personnel to escort us. That is why I prefer gambling in online casinos to avoid problems arising when I can win a lot of money from online casinos.