Aisar 2

A Florida couple taped two losing lottery tickets together, drove to the lottery office to claim $1 MILLION and told investigators they were "honest people who aren't into fraud." The lottery agent spotted the fake in seconds. They had signed their real names on the claim form. – Kira Enders and her boyfriend Dakota Jones lived in DeFuniak Springs in northern Florida. – In March 2024 Enders took a $50 scratch card called 500X The Cash to the Florida Lottery office in Pensacola and submitted a claim for $1 MILLION. – The ticket was two separate losing scratch cards ripped horizontally and taped together. – Then laminated to hide the joins. The words on the back of the two halves did not match. – Lottery officials identified it as fake within seconds of seeing it. – Before she submitted the claim Enders had already taken the ticket to three different stores to scan it. – All three machines said it was not a winner. She went to the lottery office anyway. – She had written her full name and home address on the official claim form. – She had signed an acknowledgment of the penalties for submitting a fraudulent ticket. – A lottery special agent called her six days later and asked her to come in to sign paperwork for her large prize claim. She drove straight back with Jones. – They were arrested the moment they walked through the door. – Both told investigators completely different stories about where the ticket came from. – Jones told investigators Enders knew the numbers did not match. Enders told investigators Jones had nothing to do with it. – Jones told the arresting officer "we are honest people and we are not into fraud." – The sheriff said publicly "if you are going to try to claim a million dollars you have got to do a lot better than this." – Both face charges including forgery and grand theft over $100,000 which carries a maximum of 40 years in prison. They taped two losing tickets together, laminated them, drove to the lottery office, signed their real names on the fraud form, got caught in seconds, came back six days later when investigators called, and told police they were honest people.

A mechanic bought a bag of chips and forgot his lottery ticket on the counter. The cashier kept it, burned part of it to hide the evidence, and drove to lottery headquarters to claim his $3 MILLION. Her coworker found out and demanded $200,000 to stay quiet. They argued about it on camera in the lottery lobby. – Paul Little was a diesel mechanic from Lakeville Massachusetts. – On January 17 2023 he stopped into a liquor store to buy a bag of barbecue chips and four lottery tickets. – His mind was elsewhere. His girlfriend had shattered her heel in a car accident. He was staying at her house changing her dressings and cooking her meals. – He walked out with his chips and forgot the tickets on the counter. – That evening the Mega Millions numbers were drawn. Paul had won $3 MILLION. He had no idea. – Cashier Carly Nunes, 23, held onto the ticket for two days. – Then she burned part of it to hide evidence and drove to Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters to claim the prize. – A coworker named Joseph Reddem found out. – He demanded $200,000 to stay quiet. She told him that was all he was getting. Lottery surveillance cameras filmed them arguing about it in the lobby before they even walked in. – Lottery officials examined the ticket. It was torn and burned. They told Nunes she would receive the prize once an investigation was complete. – Store surveillance footage confirmed the ticket was purchased by a man who was not Nunes. – The lottery posted flyers around Lakeville with screenshots of Paul from the store camera. They found him on February 13. – He received his $3 million check on June 30 2023. – Carly Nunes was charged with larceny, attempted larceny, false claim and witness intimidation. – Joseph Reddem was charged with attempted extortion. He skipped his court date. An arrest warrant was issued. He has not been found. A mechanic forgot his ticket on a counter. The cashier burned it and tried to claim $3 MILLION. Her coworker demanded a cut. They argued about splitting stolen money on camera inside the lottery building.

@aisarcore Great story as always

A retired repairman bought a $20 scratch card at a gas station in Roswell New Mexico. It showed he had won $500,000. The lottery told him it was a misprint. Their offer of compensation was $100 worth of free tickets. – John Wines was a 65 year old recently retired heating and air conditioning repairman from Roswell New Mexico. – In December 2014 he walked into his local Shell gas station and bought his usual weekly Powerball ticket. Then on a whim he picked up a $20 Ruby 7s scratch card too. – He sat in his car and started scratching. His winning numbers were 1 and 2. He scratched five winning numbers. Two showing $250,000 each. One for $75. One for $500. One for $50. His total winnings on the card came to $500,625. – He was confused because the maximum prize on the card was $250,000. He had somehow scratched double the maximum possible prize. — He ran back into the station. The clerk scanned it. The machine said it was not a winner. – He called the New Mexico Lottery. – They replied by email. "We did find a flaw in that particular pack of tickets and it's been reported to our printer. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I did complete a reconstruction of your ticket and it was not a winner." – Thanks for bringing this to our attention. – Their offer of compensation for the $500,000 ticket was $100 worth of free lottery tickets. – Wines told reporters: "I didn't misprint it. I bought the ticket in good faith thinking if I won I was going to get my money and they told me no. They absolutely positively told me no." – He also said: "I struggled all my life but I never cheated anyone out of anything. – And when I was in business if I made a mistake I paid for it. They just act like so what." – He did not sue. His wife told him to forget about it. He appeared on Fox and Friends and said he had given up pursuing the money. – The New Mexico Lottery's disclaimer printed on the back of every ticket reads: "Liability for void altered or misprinted tickets or disputes if any is limited to the refund of the retail sales price." – The retail price of the ticket was $20. A man scratched $500,000 on a $20 ticket. The lottery said it was their misprint and offered him $100 to make it go away. The back of every ticket already said their liability for misprints is limited to the price you paid.

A businessman flew into Vegas for the Super Bowl and got served drink after drink until he blacked out. He lost $500,000 he doesn't remember losing. The casino kept raising his credit line the whole time. He sued them for it. – Mark Johnston owned a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Los Angeles. – He flew into Las Vegas the Thursday before Super Bowl weekend, 2014, already drinking on the plane. – By dinner that night he'd had roughly 10 drinks. Then he hit the casino floor at the Downtown Grand. – Over the next 17 hours, staff served him about 20 more. – His credit line started at $250,000. The casino raised it. Then raised it again. All the way to $500,000. – Chips dropped on the floor. Words slurring and he was unable to read his own cards, according to staff. – Total blackout, he lost the full $500,000 and remembers almost none of it. – Nevada law bans casinos from letting a visibly intoxicated person gamble or serving them more alcohol. – He hired a lawyer and sued the Downtown Grand. – Days later, a casino rep allegedly called a rival casino to warn them off Johnston over his debt. – The Nevada Gaming Control Board opened its own investigation into the casino. – "This is about you almost killing me," Johnston told reporters. "What if I had choked and died?" A man was handed twenty drinks in seventeen hours, blacked out, and lost half a MILLION dollars he can't remember losing while the casino kept raising his credit line the entire time.

A store clerk found a customer's $3 MILLION winning lottery ticket left behind at the counter. She and her manager tried to steal it. Surveillance footage exposed them. The rightful owner got the jackpot. – Carly Nunes was a 23-year-old convenience store clerk at a Cumberland Farms gas station in Lakeville, Massachusetts. – On March 24, 2022, a regular customer came in and asked her to print out several scratch-off lottery tickets, including a $10 Gold Rush ticket. – The customer paid for some but accidentally left the winning Gold Rush ticket at the register. – Nunes noticed the ticket, scanned it, and realized it was worth $3 MILLION. – Instead of calling the customer back, she and her manager, Diana Gouveia, allegedly hid the ticket and tried to claim the jackpot themselves. – The real owner returned to the store the next day looking for his ticket. – Nunes told him it must have been thrown away or lost. She even helped him look through the trash. – But the Massachusetts State Lottery had security measures. They require ID and often surveillance verification for big claims. – When Nunes and Gouveia tried to claim it, red flags went up. – Investigators reviewed store surveillance footage. It clearly showed the customer buying the ticket and leaving it behind, and the employees picking it up and pocketing it. – On April 1, 2022, Carly Nunes was arrested and charged with attempted larceny over $250. – Her manager faced similar charges. Both pleaded not guilty but the evidence was overwhelming. – The $3 MILLIO prize was eventually awarded to the rightful owner after the investigation. – The customer later said he was grateful for the quick police work and that justice was served. The case made national headlines as another example of lottery workers trying to steal big wins from customers.

A 73-year-old grandmother hit a $2.5 MILLION jackpot on a Wheel of Fortune slot machine. Security swarmed her. Then a casino employee opened the machine without her permission and pressed buttons inside it. The error code appeared after that. Bally's offered her $350. – Roney Beal was a 73-year-old grandmother from Shamong Township, New Jersey. – She and her husband were long-time loyal customers at Bally's Atlantic City. That weekend they had been invited as guests of the casino. – On February 25, 2024, she sat down at a Wheel of Fortune Wide Area Progressive slot machine and hit the jackpot. – The machine registered a double win. $2,555,908.70. – The crowd around her erupted. She hit the service button and the security swarmed in. – A Bally's attendant arrived, looked at the machine, and told her it had malfunctioned. The win was void. – Then the attendant did something that would end up at the center of a federal lawsuit. – He opened the machine wthout her permission while she was standing right there. – She refused to let him "spin it off" as he asked her to. She watched him press buttons inside the machine. – A "Reel Tilt" error code appeared on the screen after he closed it. – The casino said the error had occurred during the spin itself. Malfunction voids all pays. – Bally's offered her $350. – She refused and sued both Bally's and IGT, the slot machine manufacturer. – Her lawyers argued the machine showed no error before or during her spin. It accepted her money without issue. It displayed the jackpot without issue. The error code only appeared after a casino employee had his hands inside the machine. – A federal judge cleared the case for trial. – The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement launched its own investigation. As of today they have not shared a single finding with her. > She is still waiting. Every slot machine in America has six words printed on it. Malfunction voids all pays and plays. Next time you're celebrating, read the fine print before security does.

@aisarcore @AisarLabs Wild. Love these stories

A 34 year old insurance educator from Massachusetts invested $53,000 into a dying video game store that nobody wanted. Wall Street laughed. Then it turned into $48 MILLION and he brought the entire hedge fund industry to its knees. – Keith Gill worked a regular 9 to 5 job at MassMutual insurance in Massachusetts. – He spent his evenings posting stock analysis videos on YouTube under the name Roaring Kitty. He had almost no viewers. – In 2019 he invested $53,000 into GameStop. – A struggling mall video game store that every Wall Street hedge fund was betting against. – They were so confident it would fail they had shorted the stock meaning they had borrowed and sold shares expecting to buy them back cheaper when the price collapsed. – Gill posted his analysis on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum. – Argued GameStop was undervalued and the hedge funds were wrong. Most people ignored him. – Then ordinary people started reading his posts. Retail investors with $500 and $1,000 accounts started buying GameStop shares in their thousands. – In January 2021 GameStop stock went from $3 to $483 in three weeks. A 16,000 percent increase. – The hedge funds that had shorted the stock were now in a catastrophic position. – As the price rose they were being forced to buy back shares at prices they never imagined. Melvin Capital lost $6.8 BILLION in a single month. – Robinhood and other brokers under pressure from Wall Street suddenly restricted ordinary people from buying GameStop while letting institutions sell freely. The internet exploded. – Gill was called to testify before the United States Congress. – He sat in front of the entire House Financial Services Committee in a headband and said: "I am not a cat. I am not a hedge fund. I like the stock." – His $53,000 had turned into $48 MILLION at its peak. – He quietly posted his final Reddit update in April 2021 showing a profit of nearly $20 MILLION. Then disappeared completely from the internet. – A Hollywood film called Dumb Money was made about him in 2023 starring Paul Dano. – He has given no interviews. Made no public appearances. Nobody knows exactly what he did with the money. A regular guy with $53,000 and a YouTube channel no one watched turned a dying mall store into a weapon that wiped $6.8 BILLION from a hedge fund in one month.

A failed actor from Indiana told investors he had secret deals with Netflix and HBO to distribute films across Latin America. He raised $650 MILLION. He had no deals, had no film and used the money to buy courtside NBA seats and throw parties in Hollywood while posting it all on Instagram. – Zachary Horwitz grew up in Indiana dreaming of being a Hollywood star. > He moved to Los Angeles and got a few minor acting roles. Nothing significant. – In 2014 he started a company called 1inMM Capital. – He told investors the company had exclusive deals with Netflix and HBO to license and distribute films across Latin America. – The returns he promised were extraordinary. 35 to 40 percent annually. – The deals were completely fabricated. – He forged official Netflix and HBO letterhead to make them look real. Created fake email correspondence. Produced fake contracts. – Over six years he raised $650 MILLION from hundreds of investors using nothing but forged documents and confidence. – While the money came in he lived like a celebrity. Courtside seats at Lakers games. A $5.7 MILLION mansion in the Hollywood Hills, Private jets, Lavish parties, Designer clothes and he posted everything on Instagram. – He used new investor money to pay returns to old investors to keep the scheme running. A classic Ponzi structure. – When COVID hit in 2020 the entertainment industry froze. He could no longer raise enough new money to pay existing investors. Payments stopped. – Investors contacted Netflix and HBO directly to ask about the distribution deals. – Both companies said they had never heard of him or his company. – He was arrested in April 2021. Pleaded guilty to wire fraud. – Sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. A man forged Netflix and HBO contracts, raised $650 MILLION from real investors, and spent it on courtside seats and Hollywood parties while posting it all on Instagram.

@aisarcore This is insane

@aisarcore @AisarLabs This is great

A man sold a website with no profits to Yahoo for $5.7 BILLION on April Fool's Day. Yahoo thought it was the deal of the century. They shut it down three years later. – Mark Cuban grew up in Pittsburgh selling garbage bags door to door at 12 to afford basketball sneakers. – In 1995 he started a company called Broadcast.com. The idea was simple. Let people listen to out of town sports radio on the internet. That was the whole company. – In 1998 he took it public. On the first day of trading the stock jumped 250 percent. The company hit $1 BILLION in value. Cubans owned 30 percent of it. – They had 570,000 users. The company had never made a single dollar of profit. – Yahoo was in a war with AOL and Microsoft to become the dominant homepage of the internet. – They were spending BILLIONS buying anything that looked like the future. – On April 1 1999, April Fool's Day Yahoo bought Broadcast.com for $5.7 BILLION. Cuban's personal share was $1.4 BILLION. – But Cuban was nervous. The dot-com bubble was clearly out of control. So he paid $20 MILLION in fees to Wall Street banks to lock in a guaranteed price on his Yahoo shares before the market crashed. – Six months later the bubble burst. Yahoo stock fell from $300 to $5 per share. Had he held on his $1.4 BILLION would have been worth $25 MILLION. – He walked away with every dollar. Wall Street called it one of the top ten trades of all time. – Yahoo shut down Broadcast.com in 2002. Three years after paying $5.7 BILLION for it. – In 2017 Verizon bought all of Yahoo for $4.5 BILLION. Less than what Yahoo paid for Cuban's website alone. – Cuban used the money to buy the Dallas Mavericks NBA team and became one of the most famous investors on Shark Tank. A website with no profits sold for $5.7 BILLION on April Fool's Day and shut down three years later.

A broke gym owner from Texas stole $7 BILLION, got knighted by an entire country, and got caught because he couldn't pay for a private jet with a credit card – Allen Stanford grew up poor in Texas. Opened a gym. It went bankrupt. He racked up $13 MILLION in personal debt. – He moved to the Caribbean and opened an offshore bank in Antigua. – Promised investors returns higher than any American bank. 30,000 people across 100 countries sent money in. – His CFO later admitted the numbers were completely made up from day one. That was literally his job. – Stanford bribed the chief banking regulator to look the other way. They sealed the deal by cutting their fingers and mixing their blood. – He spent $100 MILLION on private jets in three years. Bought a private island for $63 MILLION. Paid $12 MILLION just to make his yacht six feet longer. – The government of Antigua knighted him. He insisted every official document call him Sir Allen Stanford. – In 2008 he flew to Lord's cricket ground in London in a gold-trimmed helicopter carrying a transparent box of $20 MILLION cash. The largest prize in team sports history. England's cricket board signed on the spot. – He was filmed touching the England players' wives in the stands while their husbands played. National scandal. – Six months later the FBI raided his offices. – He called a private jet company to flee to Antigua and tried to pay with a credit card. They only took wire transfers. – The FBI found him hiding at his girlfriend's house in Virginia. – 20 years. $7 BILLION stolen. Investors got back 5 cents for every dollar. – He told the judge "I did not defraud anybody." The jury took three hours. – He got 110 years with no parole. Antigua stripped his knighthood. His blood brother the banking regulator got 10 years. – The castle with 57 rooms, the moat, the private island, the helicopter all gone. He built an empire on invented numbers and sealed it in blood.

@aisarcore Insane

@aisarcore @AisarLabs This is wild

A Nebraska businessman sold his company for $500 MILLION, got bored, and walked into a casino. In one year he lost $127 MILLION. The casino kept giving him vodka and painkillers in a candy box to keep him at the table. He sued them for it. They fined the casino $225,000. – Terrance Watanabe spent 25 years building Oriental Trading Company – His family's party-favor import business in Omaha, Nebraska, into one of the largest mail-order retailers in America. – In 2000 he sold it. His net worth was around $500 MILLION. – Then he had nothing to do. – He discovered a Harrah's casino across the river in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Started going to pass the time. – By 2005 he was flying to Las Vegas regularly. By 2006, he was living there full-time. – Steve Wynn noticed him at the Wynn casino and called him into a private meeting. – He could see that Watanabe was a compulsive gambler and an alcoholic. – He banned him from the property not wanting to violate Nevada law, which prohibits casinos from letting visibly intoxicated people gamble. – Harrah's called him the same week. They offered $12,500 a month in airfare, Rolling Stones tickets, $500,000 in gift store credit, and 15% cash back on any table losses over $500,000. – They gave him a free three-bedroom suite at Caesars Palace and he accepted. – 2007 Terrance Watanabe bet $825 MILLION across Caesars Palace and The Rio. – The largest amount ever wagered by a single individual in Las Vegas history. – He lost $127 MILLION of it. One man generated 5.6% of Harrah's entire Las Vegas gambling revenue that year. – Casino staff kept him supplied with his preferred vodka at all times. – When he became addicted to prescription painkillers, staff delivered Lortabs to him at the table hidden inside boxes of candy. – He sometimes played for 24 hours straight and once lost $5 MILLION in a single day. – At one point he played three blackjack hands simultaneously at $50,000 per hand. – His sister showed up at Thanksgiving 2007 and had no idea what had happened. She took him home to Nebraska. He went to rehab. – When the lawyers started tallying the losses, the real number wasn't $127 million. After Harrah's was forced to hand over their internal records, it came to $204 MILLION. – He sued Harrah's for $20 MILLION, claiming they had kept him intoxicated to keep him gambling. The Nevada Gaming Control Board opened its own investigation. – The casino was fined $225,000 for allowing him to gamble while visibly intoxicated. All criminal charges against Watanabe were dropped as part of a global settlement. The terms were confidential.

@aisarcore @AisarLabs Insane

A couple found a credit card with no cap on its top cash back tier. They turned $50,500 of available credit into $6.4 MILLION in fake spending. The IRS took them to court trying to tax the rewards as income. The couple won. – David and Tatyana Anikeev found that the Blue Cash American Express card paid 5% cash back on everyday purchases after the first $6,500 a year, with no cap after that. – They started buying gift cards and money orders directly with the credit card, then used that same cash to pay off the card balance they had just charged. – Each cycle generated 5% cash back on money that never actually left their own pocket. – To pull it off, they ran roughly 125 separate payments through just $50,500 in combined credit limit over less than two years. – Total spending was $6.4 MILLION. – Depositing over $4 MILLION in money orders into their bank accounts put them on the IRS's radar. – The IRS argued the cash back should be taxed as income since it came from buying cash equivalents, not real goods. – The case went to the US Tax Court. – The court ruled the cash back was a legitimate, non-taxable rebate, the same as any other credit card reward. – The couple kept the money. – Credit card companies have since capped almost every high-cash-back tier to close this exact loophole. A couple found a credit card with no spending cap on its top reward tier and turned $50,500 of available credit into $6.4 million in fake purchases. The IRS sued to tax it as income. The court sided with the couple.

@aisarcore @AisarLabs Wild

A couple in Massachusetts canceled their dream vacation because their fridge broke. They went grocery shopping to console themselves instead. They bought a $5 scratch ticket, threw it in the trash by accident, and almost lost $1 MILLION without ever knowing it. – Joseph and Joanne Zagami of North Attleborough, Massachusetts had a vacation booked. – Their refrigerator broke down right before the trip and they had to cancel it. – To make up for it, Joanne sent Joseph out to do the grocery shopping and pick up a few lottery tickets while he was there. – At a Stop & Shop vending machine he bought a $5 scratch ticket from the Massachusetts Lottery's $1 MILLION Jackpot game. – He tossed the ticket into one of the grocery bags without a second thought. – They got home, unpacked the groceries, and threw out the empty bags along with the trash. – Neither of them remembered the ticket was still inside one of them. – They headed out to a casino that same night to try their luck somewhere else entirely. – The next morning Joseph asked Joanne if she had scratched the ticket yet. – She said no. Neither of them had. – They realized what had happened. The ticket was gone. Thrown out with the trash the night before. – Joseph went searching through the garbage the next morning, digging through discarded grocery bags until he found it. – He scratched it standing right there. Then ran into the bedroom and woke Joanne up. – "I scratched the ticket, ran into the bedroom, and woke Joanne up," Joseph later told ABC News. "She looked at it and said, 'Oh my god! Wow!'" – It was a $1 MILLION winner. – They claimed the prize on July 24, 2013, choosing the lump sum payout of $650,000 before taxes and $455,000 after. – "We've gone through death, we're going through a wedding, we're going through a child being born," Joseph said. – The money went straight to their mortgage and outstanding bills. A broken fridge ruined their vacation. A $5 ticket from a grocery run almost got thrown in the trash. They found it digging through garbage the next morning purely out of curiosity. It was worth $1 MILLION.