Mt. Vernon woman charged with conspiracy to buy lottery tickets with stolen credit cards

A Mt. Vernon woman has been indicted by a federal grand jury for leading a conspiracy to buy nearly 2,000 lottery tickets with stolen credit cards, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

Amy Young, 31, was charged in a two-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Springfield on Wednesday. The indictment alleges Young obtained stolen credit cards and led a conspiracy to use them to purchase lottery tickets from a Phillips 66 gas station in Joplin between July 22 and Aug. 18, 2022.

Young allegedly enlisted the help of others to contact the Missouri Lottery Commission to obtain cash prizes for any winning lottery tickets that were fraudulently purchased using the stolen credit cards. They kept a portion of the money for themselves and turned over the rest of the money to Young.

According to the charges, Young used stolen credit cards to buy at least 1,957 Missouri Lottery tickets with a collective value of $62,082. Young and the co-conspirators collected $54,248 in cash prizes for the winning Missouri Lottery tickets. Between fraudulent credit card charges and the prize money that was fraudulently received, Young and her co-conspirators received at least $116,330.

Wednesday's indictment charges Young with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of wire fraud, which are related to the fraudulent purchase of $480 in lottery tickets with a stolen credit card on Aug. 18, 2022.

The case, which was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Carney.