[Rogue Leader]

Participate in the Nigerian lottery scam:

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/n...self-1.3279748

An Albany County woman who told police she lost $1 million in a lottery scam herself has been charged with stealing $40,000 from an elderly Great Neck man in a similar scam, Nassau County police said Friday.

Patricia Berak, 65, of 13 Best Ave. in Latham, about 10 miles north of Albany, was arraigned Friday on charges of grand larceny and defrauding a person of property and released on her own recognizance from First District Court in Hempstead. Police said she helped others pull off the scheme.

A second suspect has yet to be arrested, police said.

Between Sept. 2 and Sept. 6, an unknown person notified the victim, 87, he had won a lottery and instructed him to send a series of checks and money transfers to Berak at her home, police said. Those checks and transfers resulted in the victim losing $40,000, police said.

Originally, Berak was a victim of the scam, police said. She agreed to help the other participants in the scheme when they promised to return her lost money, according to a news release.

In a statement to police she gave after her arrest, Berak claimed to be out $1 million.

"The only chance I had of getting my money back was to do this," she said, according to court records.

"I knew what I was doing was wrong" police said she told them. "It was the same thing they did to me. I knew I was taking money that didn't belong to me."