As with all industries there will always be a way for the opportunist to try  to earn money fraudulently, and lottery scams are just an unwanted side effect of the popularity of lotteries worldwide. The types of lottery scams that have been reported range from phishing emails received asking for lottery players to verify their personal information, fake websites and letters or emails sent informing an individual of a fake lottery win.

If you receive an email that asks you to follow a link to provide sensitive information, it is always worthwhile checking with the company concerned that it is in fact genuine, and not a lottery scam. Certainly any reputable organisation would welcome clients contacting them rather than risk their personal data falling into the wrong hands.

How do you tell the difference between a real or lottery scam email or letter? Well certainly if you have never purchased tickets for an international lottery, but find you receive a communication informing you of a large win then without doubt this is a lottery scam. It is therefore essential that you do not pass any of your personal information and certainly no money to the sender. For detailed information about what to do if you believe that you have been targeted by lotto scam crooks, it is worthwhile visiting the Metropolitan Police's lotto fraud page. This type of fraud is becoming a real problem and the Police and Office of Fair Trading are taking the issue of lottery scams very seriously.

It really can’t be emphasised enough that keeping your personal data safe is critical and a few minutes taken just to verify the authenticity of any contact will be time well spent. Obviously the more difficult we all make it for those running lottery scams, then the more likely that they will no longer see their activities as fruitful and will cease their unscrupulous and parasitic activities.

How To Spot A Lottery Scam

It can be really exciting to get an email saying you've just won a "Million Pounds". I should know, I've received many of them myself!

If the email was from your lottery syndicate manager, or the lottery company that your playing through itself, it truly would be exciting.

But sadly it's far more likely to be another lottery scam. These are far more common than you may realise, and turn up in millions of email inboxes every day. They vary in content and mention anything from winning a million pounds to millions of Euros.

They often quote plausible sounding names such as 'Europe Lottery International' in an attempt to sound genuine. They now even quote names of perfectly respectable companies in an attempt to convince you they are real.

So how can you tell if it is a lottery scam?

The signs are usually quite clear, though it can be hard to see past the possibility that you really might have won a lot of money.

Here's 10 Top Tips To help you Spot a Lottery Scam:

1. What email address did the email come from, is it a real lottery company, or LotteryWinners@hotmail.com. If you're not sure, take the bit after the @ sign, put www. in front of it and type that into your web browser and see where you end up. If it's not a lottery organiser, that's a bad sign!

2. Spammers and scammers often fake the senders address but they need you to contact them somehow so they often include an email address to reply to. Do the same test as above on that email address. No genuine lottery company would use a free email account to correspond with jackpot winners!

3. How good is the grammar and spelling in the email? Lottery scam emails are often poorly written by people with a limited grasp of English.

4. Obvious one this. Did you pay to enter this lottery? There are free online lottery sites, but you'd know if you entered one. No company goes around giving jackpot millions out randomly to people.

5. Where did they get your email address? Similar to number 4, unless you entered an online lottery providing your email address, where did they get your email...?

6. Are they asking for a fee to process your winnings? This is a guaranteed sign of a scam. No genuine lottery would ask you to pay before they give you a prize.

7. Are they asking for your personal and bank details in order to pay your winnings? Very likely they only want those details to fraudulently empty your bank account!

8. Google is your friend. Many scams are listed on various websites. Do a search on Google for the claimed name of the company, and the names of people mentioned in the email. Use quotes around the names though, e.g. " Gina Bullork" or "European Lottery International". Use this step WITH the others, because as I mentioned, they are starting to quote genuine company names to get a better chance of scamming you!

9. Is there a phone number provided? Don't ring it, but try doing a reverse phone number search (search Google for websites that provide this service). If it turns out to be cellphone number, that's another bad sign.

10. Is there a street address provided? Again, search Google for this specific address, or just the street name and see what comes up. It wouldn't be the first time the claimed address belongs to a completely unrelated company!

Still Not Sure?

Even if all these checks still leave you wondering if it is real, you can easily put your mind to rest.

You can play along for a while. Reply to the email as instructed. Don't give any personal information, but just strike up a dialogue. Claim not to understand the instructions and repeatedly ask for clarification. Act dumb. A genuine company will be professional and bear with you. A scammer will quickly get frustrated, and it will show. Again, bad grammar and quality of English are a sign this person is unlikely to be part of a lottery organisation in a position to deal with paying out jackpots!

They ARE All Out To Get Me!

It is easy to start thinking the internet is full of scam artists when you see emails like these.

But please be reassured, they are in a tiny minority. It's just so easy now to send millions of emails out at virtually no cost, so those few people can have a wide reach (just like the relatively small number of spammers!).

So be careful out there, but don't let paranoia get you - there are an awful lot of NICE people out there in internet land.

It IS A Scam - So What Can You Do?

Sadly you can't wring their necks, not unless you fancy dedicating your life to tracking the scammers down... so your choices are:

1. Do nothing, delete the emails, make sure friends and family are aware.
2. Attempt to report the scammers to the authorities. Here's a useful contact list: http://spamlinks.net/track-report-addresses.htm#fraud
 

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The Author
The Lottery Guy has been helping lottery players online since 2003, and waging war on the junk lottery system sellers. Get his free lottery tips and you too can start winning more often.