KITTANNING — State police are warning Western Pennsylvanians of a scam involving a phony sweepstakes in which callers tell victims they’ve won money through the Rite-Aid drugstore chain.

Troopers from the Kittanning barracks say they’ve been alerted by Rite-Aid officials that the scam targeting an elderly woman on Saturday has happened in other areas, too.

Police say a caller from a phone number that has since been traced to Jamaica told the woman she had won $18,000 but had to purchase a “green dot card” for $500 to cover the taxes on her winnings. The cards are pay-in-advance devices that Rite-Aid customers can use legitimately like a debit card but which, in this case, was used to access the woman’s money.

Nobody has been arrested in the Western Pennsylvania case.