Gov't to provide details on anti-lottery scam efforts

Debbie-Ann Wright, Editor - Radio

The government is today slated to provide details of its public relations campaign in the US this week which was aimed at heading off damage from media publicity surrounding the lottery scam.

The details will be revealed at a special press conference.

On Tuesday night American News Anchor Dan Rather released an in-depth report on the scam and its victims; and yesterday, the US Senate Committee on aging began hearings into the scam.

Seeking to minimize the fallout as a result of the attention on the scam, National Security Minister Peter Bunting headed to Washington while Julian Robinson, the State Minister for Science, Technology, Energy and Mining, headed to New York.

Robinson says while in New York, he did interviews with radio and television stations, while Bunting met with Congressional leaders in Washington D.C.

They are to brief the country this morning on the outcomes from their trip, which Robinson says was used to explain that the government is doing everything it can to stop the scam.

But he says it will take even more work to repair the country’s image:

Yesterday, the US Senate special committee heard testimony from the family of persons who were victims of the lottery scam.

Senator Susan Collins rapped the Jamaican Government for what she said was its tardiness in tackling the lottery scam and bringing perpetrators to book.

She said steps needed to be taken to have the scammers extradited to the United States for prosecution.

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