Lottery scammers in Montego Bay, St James, are digging deep into their pockets to pay local 'witch doctors' to protect them against evil forces rumoured to be plaguing their colleagues.

Some scammers are said to be paying as much as $600,000 to get rid of DeLaurence spells, THE STAR has learnt.

The streets of Montego Bay are buzzing with talk that the scammers, who have made millions from conning persons out of their money, are now being haunted or even killed by duppies and spells said to have been 'sent' by those affected by their operations.

Some scammers are said to be having thousands of dollars mysteriously becoming ablaze in their pockets, short spells of insanity and having visitations from 'foreign duppies'.

Pretty white girl

In one report from a resident, a scammer is said to have fainted after people complimented him for travelling around with a "pretty white girl" on the back of his motorcycle. The scammer, however, had no knowledge that the girl was riding around with him.

One witch doctor with whom THE STAR spoke on the condition of anonymity said the scammers have been paying between $200,000 and $600,000 to protect them against the spells.

"Mi work wid de majority a dem man deh. Some top man inna de scam link mi fi mi 'seal dem up'. Anywhere mi deh, dem find mi," he said. He further said that the price of the job varied according to the type of seal the scammers were seeking.

"All $500,000 or so they have to pay sometimes because you have different seals. You have the seven seals and then the 21 seals, so it vary."

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