It's payback time for Ray Cogdel. The retiree lost more than $80, 000 to a con artist, who relentlessly called him promising big winnings if he would spend big money on foreign lottery tickets.

"I was told I was going to win a lot of money. He told me dozens of times that he's going to make a millionaire out of me, " Cogdel says.

A career soldier who had never been in debt, Cogdel emptied out his bank accounts and maxed his credit cards before he realized it was all a con.
The con artist went by the name of Ray Nichol. He worked from a Toronto boiler room illegally selling foreign lottery schemes to Americans. FBI investigators tracked him down and the man he was working for, and Cogdel has finally gotten his money back.

But even as Cogdel gets relief, many more elderly Americans continue to get fleeced in similar scams that thrive across the Canadian border. Ray Koriner was one of them. He lost his life savings to a con-man who called him 'Dad'.
Even when authorities do catch the crooks, it's often too late for their elderly victims. A few days after officials typed up a $40, 000 restitution check for Koriner, he died in a Minnesota hospital.