What are some of the signs of a lottery scam?

The most common sign of a lottery scam is receiving a letter, email, phone call or text message saying you have won a prize in a lottery that you have not entered. You cannot win a lottery that you did not participate in or buy a ticket for, so these forms of correspondence are scams and you should not respond to them.

Some of the letters, emails, phone calls or text messages you may receive might identify you as a winner that was selected at random via your email address or telephone number, and that you must contact them in order to claim your prize. They will often ask you to include bank details to release the “winnings”. These are likely malicious attempts to gain access to your financial information or charge you a premium rate to call a blank number, so do not follow their instructions and contact your local official lottery provider if you are in any doubt about what to do.

Some scam letters might request that you pay a “processing fee”, after which the funds will be paid to you. Under no circumstances should you respond to them or make any payments to them. You will never be asked to pay a fee to receive prizes from any legitimate lottery you have entered.

You will also often see that scam notifications will often use the words ‘legal’ or ‘legitimate’ to try and lure you into the false sense of security that they are genuine, when in fact they are not.

If you are unsure about whether a letter, email, phone call or text message you received is a scam, you should always contact the relevant lottery provider directly through their official website, or you can contact our Customer Experience Team as we may be able to be of assistance in finding the proper channels for you to report the scam to the authorities in your area.