03/20/2025

Federal Jury Convicts Florida Resident for Operating Mass Mailing Fraud Scheme Targeting Elderly and Vulnerable Victims

Office of Public Affairs U.S. Department of Justice

A federal jury in Central Islip, New York, convicted Hallandale Beach, Florida resident Phillip Priolo, 61, of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and four counts of mail fraud.

In November 2021, Priolo was charged with operating a mass mailing fraud scheme that tricked thousands of victims, many of whom were elderly, into providing the defendants with money by falsely promising prizes. Evidence presented at trial showed that, from March 2015 to December 2016, Priolo and his co-conspirators mailed millions of prize notices that falsely represented that the victims had been specifically chosen to receive a large cash prize and would receive the prize if they paid a fee. Victims who paid the requested fee, however, did not receive the promised cash prize. Although the notices appeared to be personalized correspondence, they were merely mass-produced, boilerplate documents that were bulk mailed to recipients whose names and addresses were on mailing lists.