Miami Area Woman Convicted Of Swindling $60k In Facebook Romance Scheme

Scams are everywhere, especially online and a Miami area woman has been convicted of swindling $60k in a Facebook romance scheme.

Every now and then on Instagram I'll get messages trying to convince me they'll be my sugar daddy. There are the scams asking if they can paint a mural of a photo on your feed. And there's the military scams that are WAY more popular than you'd think. In fact, a friend of mine found out that his photo was used in over 67 military scams on the internet, and of course it wasn't him doing the scamming. It's not just happening here in Fort Myers, it's happening everywhere.

This past Tuesday, authorities arrested Lisa Miller for scamming a 74-year-old into sending over $60,000. Local10 reports that Linda Bemis, the 74-year-old victim, was using Facebook. She was surprised to be connected to a handsome military man referred to as Mr. Bravo. Obviously, Mr. Bravo was not who he claimed to be, as we find out later that Bravo is in fact Miller, trying to get $60,000 out of Bemis.

Miller denied the accusations and mentioned to police that she was also scammed. As the story goes, Miller was lying to Bemis, saying that “Bravo” was stuck in Afghanistan and needed $50,000 to send his luggage through customs. Bravo convinced the victim sell her stake in her home and sell her car to obtain the money. Detectives said the money was spent over the course of a few months.

Even though this story sounds too crazy to be believable, it's proof that it can happen to anyone. Scammers prey on emotions, so it's important to be vigilant when it comes to connections on the internet.

Miller faces charges of theft from an elderly and organized fraud. She is currently behind bars awaiting sentencing.

Co-author: Jackson Sparkman

Publix is smart. They have you two ways when it comes to Florida Lottery scratch off tickets. First, you go past the lottery counter after check out. Then, you need to walk past that beautiful vending machine as you're heading out the door. Playing these tickets is a lot of fun. There's always new themes, and new games. But as some of the games get older, your odds of winning the big prize can vanish. And if you're looking to win big, those are the Florida Lottery scratch off tickets you may want to avoid.

I'm updating this list because a lot has changed since we did it last. Also, it's because of the holidays. Buying scratch off tickets as gifts is a very common thing, even for people who don't normally play. So why gift a ticket that has no chance of winning big. "Hey you could win a million dollars - but you won't" isn't really a festive thing to do. There's a lot of tickets out there that have a ton of big prizes still available. But 7 of them don't. So, with the help of data provided buy the Florida Lottery, let's take a look at the scratch off tickets where all the big winners are gone.

Many of these tickets still have a lot of secondary prizes available. Just because you can't win 5 million, doesn't mean you can't win 1 million. I do this list because I'm a dreamer. And my dream is always to win big.

Someone here at the station won over $12,000 at the casino playing slots last summer. My first thought was, wow, the jackpot is over $100,000 - so close. She was very happy winning the 12K.  But if you're like me, and have dreams of winning the biggest of prizes, these are the tickets that won't do it for you. All of these stats are as of 11/6/2023.

This was actually a cool little game. A $2 ticket that could win you $100,000.  But all of those big winners are gone. There's still 16 of the $1,000 winners available. It makes sense that the big winners are gone from this ticket as it's at the end of it's life. End Date: December 01, 2023. So even though it has a bit of a Christmas feel to this ticket, it's probably not your best choice for a gift.

Here's another ticket that's nearing the end of it's life, with a December 1 end date. This $50 ticket definitely made some headlines with it's $25 million dollar grand prize. But those tickets are gone. And of the 160 $1 million dollar winning tickets, there's only 4 of those left.

This ticket has been out for over a year and I really don't recall ever seeing it at the counter. It's a $5 ticket that could have scored you $500,000. But all of those top prizes have been paid out. There's a few $10,000 winning tickets left - still not bad for a $5 ticket.

A $2 ticket with a $100,000 top prize. And everybody loves Monopoly, right? Unfortunately, those are all gone. There's a series of Monopoly Doubler tickets out there and all the other ones have top prizes still available. Just not the $2 one.

The "Week For Life" tickets are very popular, but this one has already been tapped. There's 8 people out there already collecting the grand prize, and that's it for that. You could still win $10 grand, which isn't too shabby.

I'm still intrigued by the $30 card. It's like the $20 cards aren't enough, but you're not ready for the $50 cards just yet. But this ticket has been played hard. All 4 of the $15 million, and all 24 of the $1 million winners are gone. There's still 1 of the 20 $100,000 winning tickets left.

I admire anyone who plays these crossword style tickets. I'm always afraid I'm going to mess up, win big, and not even know it. The last time I had one, I took it to Publix and scanned the ticket to see if it won. Just in case. This $20 ticket had 8 big winners of the $5 million dollar prize, but all of those have been claimed. One of the 24 $1 million dollar winning tickets is still out there.

Since we've covered the tickets that have no big winners left, what about the ones that haven't hit yet? The tickets where none of the top prizes have been claimed. Do they exist? Yes they do. I can't say for sure that no one has bought one of these tickets yet, it's just that none of them have been claimed. Sometimes when people win millions, they consult a lawyer and tax planner before they go to the lottery office.

There are 4 tickets that show all the big winners are still out there. Here they are.

This is the $5 version of the Triple Match series that just came out at the end of October. All 6 of the $1 million dollar winning tickets are still out there. And if you're thinking "this ticket just came out last week, there's no way any of the big winners have been sent out." Well, that'd be wrong.

There's a $10 version of this game with a $2 million dollar grand prize that's already had one claimed. That ticket hit stores on October 30th, and by November 3rd someone had already claimed a 2 million dollar prize. The winning ticket was sold at a liquor store in Graceville, Florida. With a population of 2,278 there's no way this person is gonna stay anonymous. 

The $2 version of the Triple Match series. There's 6 $50,000 winners, and all of them are out there. There's also a $1 version of this game that's already had 2 big winners hit last week. One in Miramar, and one in Apopka. Each of those scored 10 grand.

The $20 version of this game, with a fairly hefty $5 million dollar grand prize. There's 8 of those. These Triple Match games must be very popular, this one has already had 2 people claim the $1 million dollar secondary prize. One hit in Chipley at a Tom Thumb Store. The other in Melbourne at a 7-11. As I said, these Triple Match tickets are only a week old and are already paying out.

I've been talking about this game for awhile now. This ticket came out back in February with a grand prize of a million dollars a year for life. There's 2 of those grand prize tickets out there and neither have been claimed. This ticket even has a second chance contest, per the Florida Lottery website "Enter your non-winning YEAR FOR LIFE ($1, $2, $5, $10, and $50) Scratch-Off tickets into the FREE RIDE & FUEL FOR LIFE BONUS PLAY where 10 lucky winners will win free fuel for a year and a new Ford vehicle!"

There's been a lot of $1 million dollar winners on this ticket, including Joan in Cape Coral - but the dream of winning a million dollars a year for life is still out there.