Two Coeur d'Alene residents were recently scammed out of more than $5,000 in separate incidents.

According to a police report, a woman reported Friday she received a letter in the mail announcing she was the second-prize winner in a lottery drawing held in January, and was entitled to $60,000.

Enclosed with the letter was a check for $2,750.15, which was to be used to pay the taxes on her winnings.

She was advised to contact her assigned claims agent to "activate" the check before depositing it. The woman called, and was told to wire $850 to cover the taxes to an account in London.

On Sept. 24, she deposited the check to her bank account and two days later withdrew cash and wired $1,700 in two transfers of $850 to cover the remaining taxes. The total cost with fees was $1,824.

She was told her winnings would arrive at 12:20 on Thursday. No winnings arrived, and Friday she received notice from her bank the original check was fraudulent.

She then called police.

In a separate incident, a Coeur d'Alene man told police on Friday that his wife began receiving calls six weeks ago, and was told she had won the lottery.

The caller convinced the woman she had won money but needed to send money to cover the taxes, the report said.

The couple purchased three Green Dot cards for an unknown amount. They never received their winnings.

They also received a similar call from another person claiming they were with a sweepstakes. The couple lost money on that scam, too, police said.

In the past two weeks, another caller who said he was with a credit protection bureau in Arlington, Va., convinced the couple to wire $2,625 to an account in San Francisco. They lost that money, too.

The man told police he "now realizes these calls were scams" but he is concerned his wife will continue to fall victim to scams.

Police advised the man to have his wife's telephone number changed.