Mildred Rice daily receives many phone calls from Jamaica, and it's not because she is trying to plan a white-sand vacation in the Caribbean.
It's not unusual for Rice, who is 80 years old and has been taking care of her 102-year-old mother for the last five years, to receive as many as 30 calls a day. Her caller ID shows that most of the calls are "out of area" or from Jamaica.
"The calls have driven us about crazy, " Rice said.
Calls and letters from supposed foreign lotteries in places such as Europe, China, Australia and British Columbia have flooded her home after she began talking with foreign scammers. Since then, she has sent nearly $9, 000 of her life savings in hopes of getting rich to help her family.
It all started in August 2005 when a man with a Jamaican accent who called himself Detective Weldon called to tell Rice that she had won $2.5 million in a Reader's Digest sweepstakes.
"I thought, 'hot dog! What a wonderful thing, ' “Rice said.
She knew she hadn't entered any contest, but the person on the phone told her because she was a magazine customer, she was automatically entered to win.
"Then, he told me I needed to send $1, 800 to make sure I got the money, " she said.
Later, another person identifying himself as a detective called to ask if she could help catch foreign scammers.
"I thought I was helping, " Rice said.
When the "detective" called, he would tell her where to send the $300. The plan was that the scammer would go to pick up the money, and the "detective" would be there to apprehend him. Each time Rice helped catch a scammer, she was supposed to get $15, 000 in return.
"I sent them money thinking they were catching the bad guys, " she said.
So she sent the money through Western Union to where the man told her. Her children, who live in Washington State, had no idea that their mother was waiting for millions of dollars with excitement.
"I was going to surprise everybody, " Rice said. "Then I could help all the kids."
Meanwhile, the phone kept ringing with more sweepstakes offers, and Rice began to wonder when the money she allegedly had won was going to start arriving.
"They never sent me a dime back, " Rice said.
In November, she went to Washington State to visit her family and celebrate her birthday. That's when her son, Daryl Rice, and her daughters noticed she was receiving several calls a day. She was reluctant to tell Daryl, but contacted the Ames Police Department.
"The police officer told me not to send (the frauds) any more money because they weren't going to send any to me back ... but (the frauds) kept promising me, and I thought it was real, " Rice said.
Rice said the men who called her spoke to her with a gentle attitude, told her how nice and wonderful she was and that she deserved to win.
Finally, when her son visited her home in Gilbert in December, he realized what was happening.
"Mom does fine on her own, except for financial stuff, " he said.
That's when Daryl installed a caller ID on the phone so she would know when not to answer. Rice's mother wouldn't allow her to change the phone number.
Also, when he looked at her two bank account statements, Daryl noticed periodic withdrawals of $399. Rice isn't certain, but she either gave her bank account information to the people who called her or someone stole her identity information to steal from her account.
Daryl and his mother worked together to get him general power of attorney. He worked with the banks to get her account numbers changed and is monitoring her accounts on-line from Washington.
There haven't been withdrawals since then, and Rice said she doesn't answer the phone if it is an out-of-area call.
"It's really been hard ... but I finally quit sending them money about a month ago, " Rice said. "I am embarrassed ... especially knowing I was dumb enough to get scammed."