Sweepstakes, Lottery Scams, and Fake Prizes: A Lose-Lose Game!
Author: Nichlaus O.
“Congratulations, you have just been selected to win $10,000! All you have to do is send a small payment to cover shipping and processing and we’ll send you your prize!”
Scammers know how to get your attention! You check it out to find out if it’s true and how you may get your money. But wait, you don’t remember entering any sweepstakes, buying any lottery ticket, or even registering for a prize draw. Then it dawns on you that it could be a scam!
Lottery scammers know how to make you feel special. The agent calling you may suggest you keep your win a secret because it’s due to a mix-up of names and numbers. Don’t fall for it! If you respond to the email, they will ask you to give personal information and supporting documents to prove your identity. The fraudsters will use this information to steal your identity.
This scam can also take another direction, which is telling you to contact the claims agent to pay transfer fees or processing charges so that they “distribute” or send you the winnings. If you go along with either of these two suggestions, you will never receive the money you won. Instead, you could lose more money. Note that lottery scams often use the names of genuine overseas lotteries to sell the scam as legit.
Signs of a Lottery Scam
- You win a lottery that you didn’t enter, buy a ticket, or play.
- You win a lottery in another country. Known Spanish, Australian, and Canadian lotteries are the ones used often as scapegoats.
- You win but need to pay a processing fee, international transfer fee, tax, charge to claim your prize. Genuine Lotteries subtract fees and tax from your prize.
- You get a call from the “Federal Sweepstakes Board” or the federal government notifying you of your winnings.
- The email is from free account sites like Yahoo, MSN, Gmail, Outlook, Hotmail, Live. Registered companies have their branded professional business emails.
- Failure to provide a full street address. Contact is limited to email and phone.
- Suggestions to keep the win confidential.
Common Lottery Scams
Fake Sweepstakes Agent
Most scams are through phone calls, emails, or texts from scammers pretending to be agents for registered lotteries. They request more information to:
- wire the winnings to your account,
- pay processing charges, transfer fees, or taxes to release your prize,
- comply with some legal hurdle unknown to you.
Lottery Clerk Thieves
In the USA, there are lottery clerks who rip off genuine winners. Their job is to check the tickets for wins on the computer system. They hide some of the winnings that ticket owners bring for checking. The owner then abandons the ticket there thinking it’s useless. The clerks wait for a week or two and come to claim the win for themselves.
How to protect yourself from lottery scams
- Ignore the message, email, or call. Hang up the phone if you feel pressured.
- Don’t send money at all. Regardless of how little, don’t send money in advance for whatever charge.
- Do not give any personal information even if they offer to wire the money directly to your account. Guard your credit card number, bank details, passport number, and even your full name.
- Don’t fall for their suggestion to call a number they’ll give you to verify your wins. It will be another scammer ready to trick you into giving your information. Especially if they give Caribbean area codes 876, 809, or 284 as these are known to be fraudster havens.
- Contact the actual lotto company directly. Use Google to get their contacts; write or call to find out if the claims are true.
- Install and use caller ID on your phone to check the area code of callers. This way you'll know foreign callers who are most likely scammers.
- Report the fraud and file a complaint with Federal Trade Commission or United States Postal Inspection Service. Report to Action Fraud if in the UK.
- Check our list of Reliable Lottery Sites to keep you from falling for Lottery Scams.
If you fall victim to a lottery scam
- Cease all contact with the scammers immediately.
- Notify your bank and the relevant anti-fraud authorities in your country.
- Note and save all the information that you gave to the scammers. It will help determine the extent of the damage and your future protection.
- Report the incident to the actual lottery company.
- Be extra careful online because you may now be targeted with other scams as fraudsters have your details.
Report a Scam!
Have you fallen for a hoax, bought a fake product? Report the site and warn others!
Scam Categories
Help & Info
Popular Stories
As the influence of the internet rises, so does the prevalence of online scams. There are fraudsters making all kinds of claims to trap victims online - from fake investment opportunities to online stores - and the internet allows them to operate from any part of the world with anonymity. The ability to spot online scams is an important skill to have as the virtual world is increasingly becoming a part of every facet of our lives. The below tips will help you identify the signs which can indicate that a website could be a scam. Common Sense: Too Good To Be True When looking for goods online, a great deal can be very enticing. A Gucci bag or a new iPhone for half the price? Who wouldn’t want to grab such a deal? Scammers know this too and try to take advantage of the fact. If an online deal looks too good to be true, think twice and double-check things. The easiest way to do this is to simply check out the same product at competing websites (that you trust). If the difference in prices is huge, it might be better to double-check the rest of the website. Check Out the Social Media Links Social media is a core part of ecommerce businesses these days and consumers often expect online shops to have a social media presence. Scammers know this and often insert logos of social media sites on their websites. Scratching beneath the surface often reveals this fu
So the worst has come to pass - you realise you parted with your money too fast, and the site you used was a scam - what now? Well first of all, don’t despair!! If you think you have been scammed, the first port of call when having an issue is to simply ask for a refund. This is the first and easiest step to determine whether you are dealing with a genuine company or scammers. Sadly, getting your money back from a scammer is not as simple as just asking. If you are indeed dealing with scammers, the procedure (and chance) of getting your money back varies depending on the payment method you used. PayPal Debit card/Credit card Bank transfer Wire transfer Google Pay Bitcoin PayPal If you used PayPal, you have a strong chance of getting your money back if you were scammed. On their website, you can file a dispute within 180 calendar days of your purchase. Conditions to file a dispute: The simplest situation is that you ordered from an online store and it has not arrived. In this case this is what PayPal states: "If your order never shows up and the seller can't provide proof of shipment or delivery, you'll get a full refund. It's that simple." The scammer has sent you a completely different item. For example, you ordered a PlayStation 4, but instead received only a Playstation controller. The condition of the item was misrepresented on the product page. This could be the
