How to recognize a lottery scam message
If you receive a suspicious email, review this checklist, to find out, have you become a target of fraud.
1. You played the lottery that day?
The golden rule of identifying a fraudulent message. If you have not played - have not bought a ticket or played online - you cannot win.
2. Have you been asked to pay something?
An official company will never ask you to pay a commission or pay any other costs, to give you a prize. The official company will pay you the winnings in full, the only expenses, which you, possibly, have to bear, there will be taxes.
3. Is the specified winnings realistic??
Take a close look at the winnings, currency and lottery name, to find out, are they appropriate and appropriate. for instance, if you live in Canada and receive an email from the UK Lottery, which says, what have you won 10 million Indian rupees, then this is a sign that, that the message is not true.
4. Does the sender insist on your reply?
Lottery prizes have expiration dates, but in most cases players have several months, and sometimes a year or more, since the day of the lottery, to claim a prize. The official company will provide a link to its terms and conditions, if he mentions any time limits on requesting a prize.
5. Have you been asked to keep this news a secret?
This technique is used, to intimidate people. No reason, so as not to tell family or friends about the real winnings. Fraudsters are simply trying to limit the scope of deception, that they are not reported to the police or the real company, which they imitate.
6. Is the post professional?
Scammers are becoming more sophisticated in the design and content of their scam messages, but you should note, how professional they look. Check first, Does such a lottery organization really exist?. Euro Mega Millions Corporation May Ring True To EuroMillions And Mega Millions Players, but in fact this is an absolute fiction. If the message is full of typos and grammatical errors, this is another warning about a very likely fraud.
7. Do they know your name?
If you play online, you may receive a genuine automatic notification of the winner without your name, however, pay close attention to the greeting “Dear Winner!"Or" Dear Account Holder!», as this is a sign of possible fraud.
8. What an email address looks like?
Pay attention to the email address. Does it look like a genuine company email
Official lotteries will never send you messages from personal Gmail or Hotmail addresses.
