Lottery scams are very lucrative schemes for criminals. This article explains how to recognize and avoid the scam.
Introduction
Lottery scams are very lucrative schemes for criminals. They are an Advance Fee scam. Lottery scams dangle a huge amount of money in front of potential victims with the anticipation that they will receive the advertised winnings.
Legitimate lotteries never ask for money to collect the winnings. Legitimate Sweepstakes, also known as Free Lotteries, never ask for money to enter the lottery or collect the winnings. Both also don’t collect taxes. Taxes are the responsibility of the winner after they receive the winnings.
Winning notifications can be distributed by email, mail, phone or fax to many thousands of potential victims daily. The true purpose of the lottery scam is to accumulate cash and collect banking, financial and personal information that can be used or sold for identity theft.
The 4 Highlights
There are four recognizable signs of a lottery scam. First, you are notified by fax, telephone or email that you’ve won a lottery in a different country that you don’t remember entering.
Second, they ask for your personal identification such as address, social security number, drivers’ license number, passport information, credit card information or financial information.
Third, they need up-front monies for taxes, registration, bank fees, insurance, couriers or shipping costs that don’t exist.
Fourth, they either insist on the victim depositing a counterfeit check - money order or for the victim to pay the fees through Western Union or Moneygram because then they can pick up the money anywhere in the world without leaving a paper trail. Unfortunately, once someone deposits a counterfeit check or money order into a bank account, not only does the check issuer have the depositor’s real banking information when the check is eventually rejected by the bank but the depositor is responsible for all the funds deposited.
Avoid Lottery Scams
Don’t click on any spam email links. It isn’t difficult for a criminal (or anyone else) to register and have a functional website. A website can be created to look like exactly like an already existing bank’s website or a legitimate government or agency website. The creator can display your name, information and the advertised amount of winnings. Then it can be removed faster than you can read this paragraph. If information is submitted to the illegitimate website it can be used for identity theft and removal of money from your accounts.
Don’t read any emails from persons or companies you don’t know. Just opening the spam email to read it without clicking on a link can begin installation of spyware.
Don’t respond to any official-looking email or letter without first telephoning or logging in with a new browser window in your usual fashion to be sure the company actually did send the correspondence.
If you don’t remember entering the lottery chances are good that you didn’t.
It is against American law to play a foreign lottery through the mail or by telephone. You can read more about lottery scams from the Federal Trade Commission. And remember, “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” For a review about how to recognize the majority of scams, click here.