Los Angeles County prosecutors warn of lottery scratch-off scam

Los Angeles County prosecutors are warning California Lottery players to beware of a scam in which merchants are cashing in on their unsuspecting customers’ winning scratch-off tickets.

The District Attorney’s office says some vendors scratch out a tiny code at the bottom of a ticket and then enter that into a lottery computer to determine if the ticket is a winner. The merchant then cashes in the winning tickets and leaves their customers with the losing ones.

The Los Angeles Daily News said Sunday that players can guard against the scam by examining the ticket for areas that have already been scratched.