Victims of a winning lottery ticket scam thought they would be winners, but instead, have been conned out of thousands of dollars, police said.

Santa Ana police today identified 15 men and women, mostly elderly, as victims of this scam in Santa Ana, authorities said.

"We believe some of the victims don't report it because of embarrassment," said Santa Ana police officer Jose Gonzalez. "We are trying to encourage victims to come forward."

In some instances, the victims gave scam artists thousands of dollars in cash and jewelry, Gonzalez said.

Four people were arrested in Ontario April 12 regarding at least two of the 15 scam victims, after police said they tried to take thousands of dollars from a 70-year-old woman.

The charges against the four suspects are elder abuse, theft by false pretenses and conspiracy to commit crime.

In the scam, police said, a perpetrator would approach a victim and say that he or she has a winning lottery ticket but can't cash it because he or she is in the country illegally. A second person would then confirm the story and then would ask the victim for $15,000 in cash, Gonzalez said.

On April 12, Ontario police arrested Jose German Perez-Rodero, 56; Juan Carlos Moreno, 46; Steffany Sanchez Moreno, 24; and Diana Rojas, 40.

Police said the four are accused of using the lottery ticket ruse on the victim and convincing her to go to her bank and withdraw thousands of dollars.

At the bank, a teller suspected that the victim was being forced to make a withdrawal and alerted the manager. The manager approached the man, who fled.

A witness saw the four, all from Los Angeles, get into a red Jeep Cherokee, and reported it to police.

"Because we have victims here in Santa Ana and the suspects were caught in Ontario, it's feasible that they were doing the same activity in other cities," Gonzalez said.

Anyone with information or who believes they were a victim is encouraged to call the Santa Ana Police Department at 714-245-8417.

By The Orange County Register