Watch Out – Florida Residents Beware Of This Online Scam

John McKendrick from West Palm Beach had his entire life savings wiped out by online scammers. McKendrick who is a U.S. Navy Veteran says he missed all the warnings signs of an online scam. It all started back in March when he spotted a weird charge on his credit card. He says he thought it was Norton Security Protection.

After googling the company, he found a number and called them. The person who answered the phone said that he needed remote access to his computer to check whether their software was actually installed. The person on the phone goes on to say that their software was not installed, but they found “hackers.” McKendrick says he was convinced that he need their expertise.

He told McKendrick that they would be putting $10K in his bank account to trigger the “hackers.” McKendrick was then instructed to withdraw $10K out of his bank account and put it in a bitcoin machine. He did this 10 times before catching on.

McKendrick discovered he was withdrawing his own money and now his life savings is gone. He is now out of $94K. McKendrick filed a police report and reached out to his bank. McKendrick says even if he does not get his money back, he’s hoping his situation can help someone else.

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I'm so happy for anybody who wins the Lottery! No matter how big or small, it’s still a blessing to just win something. Even though I’m envious, I get so excited when someone goes to the store and spends a little but wins millions or even billions. I'm no stranger to buying a lottery ticket here in Florida. I frequently buy them from the Publix right here in Tampa. I also played the lottery a lot when I lived in Fort Myers. I'm happy when I win my money back, so imagine how these people feel!

My mom would ask me, “what lottery games do you like to play?”  I like to play the scratch off tickets.  I also will buy a Mega Millions or Powerball ticket when the jackpot gets high. There has been a list created of the 10 Biggest U.S. Lottery Jackpots, and one of the tickets was sold right here in Florida. All of the people who won these jackpots have made history! And it took was going to the store and buying a lottery ticket. Below is the list of states where the Top 5 Lottery Jackpot winning tickets were sold. The biggest lottery jackpot ever was just a few months ago.

One lucky person in Illinois bought the winning Mega Millions ticket in July of 2022. They came forward after several weeks but their identity is unknown. They purchased the 5th largest jackpot prize totaling $1.337B.

A person in Maine won the 4th largest Jackpot in U.S. history.  The jackpot was estimated at $1.35 billion dollars. The drawing was on Jan 13th of this year and it was sold in Lebanon, Maine.

 This was the third largest jackpot and it was a Mega Millions Prize worth $1.54B. The ticket was drawn in October of 2018.  The winner is from South Carolina but did not come forward until a year later. They chose to take their winnings in a one-time lump sum of $877,784,124 .

This was the second biggest Jackpot and it was split in three ways. This Powerball prize was $1.586B. It was sold in 2016 and there were three matching tickets.  The Melbourne Beach resident who won in Florida also had to split the prize with a California and Tennessee resident. Still not a bad deal though. With a three way split they would each get $528M.

This is the Largest Lottery Jackpot to date. It was a Powerball ticket that was sold in November of 2022. The city it was purchased in was Altadena! The ticket was worth $2.04B. According to Lottery officials, the ticket holder was the first lottery billionaire in the state of California.