Lottery Scams

What are Lottery Scams?

A lottery scam comes under advance-fee fraud, which starts with unsolicited emails, phone calls, or mailings stating “you are the winner” and asking you to contact a claims agent. Upon reaching the agent, you are asked to pay certain charges to access the winnings, but in reality, you will never receive any lottery payment.
Most lottery scams use the names of legit lottery organizations or other legitimate corporations/companies. But in reality, the organizations are not involved with the cons.
They sometimes even offer a “free play” that, according to them, results in a “prize.” They go as far as claiming that they belong to a legitimate lottery. They are pushy and use all sorts of gimmicks to get to your personal information and money.

How do Lottery Scams Work?

The lottery sounds terrific, but things get tricky when it comes actually to delivering your price money. After the crooks convince the person that they have won a prize, the fraudsters try to get them to wire money for “taxes” or “fees.” This alleged fee is asked to cover the cost of processing the price, taxes, courier charges, and insurance.

This money can only be wired to a specific bank account or furnished via a prepaid debit card. If one falls for the scam and pays the fee, the scammer will collect the fees and keep postponing the delivery of the prize.

The scammers try to get the victim’s bank account details which they can wipe out.

Or

They send the winner a fake “check” and ask them to send money back for the expenses. After the crooks receive the fee, they vanish into thin air.

There are other ways to pull the lottery scams, like asking the victim to call a phone number or click on a link to get the prize. As the victim does it, they are asked to provide personal information such as the social security number, account details, and date of birth. They make the victim do all of this in the name of receiving the prize, while all this information makes the victim more vulnerable to identity theft and more.

In addition, the scammers have now started to hack into social media accounts and contact their friends and family members through their accounts, telling them they have won money in a lottery. The victim thinks that the message has been by someone trustworthy; they easily fall prey to the scam.

Once the scammers lure someone in, they repeatedly call them, promising that the big prize is only one payment away. If you stop paying them or shut them out, they may even try to harm you. Older people are more at risk here since they are targeted the most with these tricks.

How to Identify Lottery Scams?

Look for the following red flags to identify a lottery scam,

• You got a notification that you won a lottery you are sure you never entered.
• Your alleged lottery win was drawn overseas. Legitimate lotteries do not hold international contests or rewards for people outside their market.
• The email, text or any alert that informs you of the win has endless grammatical errors. Check the mistakes as they are warning signs that fraudsters are at work.
• You are asked to keep the win confidential. Real lotteries are big on publicity. If you are asked to keep the win a secret, it is a scam.
• You are asked for a fee to enable your price money. No official lottery operator will ask you for fees to collect winnings. Fee requests are huge red flags.
• You are asked for confidential data over a call or online to claim your prize.
• You are requested to call a number or click on a link to claim your prize.
• Check the caller’s area code; if it is from a foreign country, it is a huge red flag. Some may even disguise their area code.
• Be vigilant even when the approacher’s name is legitimate, as they might be using the name.

How to Protect Yourself from Lottery Scam?

Here are some safety measures that can protect you from a lottery scam,

• Do not share your personal information over the phone or online with unknown sources.
• Do not click on links from an unsolicited sender.
• Do not wire money to an unknown contact.
• If you receive a phony message from a family member or friend, contact them directly to verify that they are sending the message. Inform them that their social media account has been hacked if they did not send the message.
• Do not give your bank account information if they offer to wire your winnings.
• Find out the accurate contact information of you are asked to verify a number by calling it.
• Hang up if you think someone is trying to scam you on a call.
• Do not fall for social media messages or posts which appear to be from celebs or business moguls saying that they are offering a big cash giveaway.
• Always read the fine print on a contest form and ensure that you are not missing legally required information like the start and end dates of the contest. Check the entry methods, descriptions of prized, and legal disclaimers. The lack of it suggests something shady is at work.

What To Do If You Have Been a Victim of Lottery Scams?

Dreaming of winning a lottery is excellent but do not let the nightmarish scammers get to you with simple tricks. Lottery scams are popular and catch naive victims by promising incredible wins which appear authentic.

Have you fallen for a false win and wired money to a lottery scam? Don’t worry; Financial Fund Recovery will aid you in recovering your money within 120 working days. Our experts are well-versed in the scams arena and will not let you get duped from your money to any scam.