Unfortunately, an industry as enjoyable as the lottery has been tainted by various lottery scams where excited players have been taken advantage of. You don’t have to be one of them because there are ways to identify these criminal acts and learn techniques of how to avoid lottery scams completely. Our informative guide will make you a smarter player, so you can simply keep on enjoying your favourite games in store or online.
What is a Lottery Scam or Prize Scam?
A lottery or prize scam is a situation where fraudsters engage with individuals with the goal of getting them to pay over money or obtain their personal information. In this case, the topic they use to reach these goals is lottery games.
Almost anyone can fall prey to these criminals, because you don’t necessarily need to play the lottery for them to try their strategies on you. Some scammers use the attraction of lotteries and big prizes to sell their fake stories and achieve the goals of their scams.
Types of Lottery Scams
There are a few approaches criminals take when trying to scam people out of money or get their personal data. Common strategies are displayed below.
| Type | Strategy | Example |
|---|---|---|
| cheque Scams | By using fake cheques, scammers obtain a target’s trust. They then ask for urgent action to be taken in the form of payments, to ensure you receive your money. Later on the cheque bounces. |
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| Drip Feeds | Scammers use the drip feed approach to not scare off their targets. The goal is to obtain personal information, bit by bit, in order to gain access to bank accounts or even perform identity theft. |
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| Social Media | Criminals try to seem legitimate by contacting people through social media. It’s an easy method to find targets if people don’t use privacy settings appropriately. If a criminal realises from your own social media posts that you often play a lottery like Powerball, they’ll use that knowledge to their advantage. Tip: players should know that no lottery operator will have its staff contact players through their personal social profiles. |
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| Phone Scam | Scammers make money by getting victims to phone premium rate numbers. The longer you stay on the line, the more money they make. |
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Common Signs of Lottery Scams
The good news is that you can usually easily identify when you’re communicating with a scammer via phone, email or online. It simply calls for staying vigilant and not being too trustworthy.
If you notice any of the following as part of communication with individuals saying they represent a lottery, rather be safe than sorry and terminate all communication.
Requests to Pay Fees to Claim Prizes
Scammers use people’s desire to receive winnings to obtain an advantage, as it may cause you to make decisions you won’t normally even consider. The scammer will ask you to pay fees related to taxes or to clear payments, even before you’ve received any prize money.
Firstly, no legitimate lottery operator will ask you to pay fees in order to receive your winnings. Even online lottery sites like theLotter have policies that state they don’t take commission from your winnings. Therefore, any form of payment before receipt of money should be seen as suspect.
Source: theLotter
South African players should also remember that when playing SA lotteries like Lotto, no one has the right to ask you for upfront payments for tax. This is because SA tax laws don’t demand tax payments on lottery winnings, unless it’s your main source of income.
Being Asked to Return Prize Money
Scammers are experts at impersonating institutions like a lottery operator. If you did win a lottery prize and they become aware of it – through the media or your own social media content – they can try and prompt you to pay your winnings over to them by saying you need to return what you’ve received. Their reasoning could be that there has been a payment error.
No one can force you to pay back money you received from a lottery. Legitimate institutions follow strict claims processes to ensure no mistake is made. Therefore, anyone who requests you to return the money is probably a scammer.
Messages Requesting Urgent Action
No matter the strategy scammers follow, you can be sure they’ll have a sense of urgency in all their messages. For example, they may prompt you to take swift action, or you’ll lose out on your win.
Pushing you to take swift action is a way of distracting victims from the truth. Or the tension in the scenario can lead people to make decisions they’ll usually avoid, simply because of feeling flustered by the possibility of not getting money they’ve been promised.
Requests for Payment Via Less Secure Payment Services
Thanks to technology, these days there are multiple payment options to use. Unfortunately, not all of them are equally secure. If someone says they represent a lottery but asks for payment via payment services like prepaid cards of PayPal, rather than official bank accounts, there’s a big chance they’re criminals. Even wire transfers are less secure.
Fake Websites
Criminals do all they can to seem legitimate to those individuals that do first take their time to do a background check on the caller. For this reason they set up fake websites. However, these are easy to identify via features like:
- Website URL that doesn’t match the real lottery company’s own platform
- No SSL/TLS certificate to authenticate a website and ensure data is encrypted
- URL shows HTTP instead of the more secure HTTPS version
- The domain age shows it’s only a few days or weeks old
- It’s not a well designed, user friendly website
Source: theLotter
You’re a Winner But You Didn’t Buy a Ticket
Criminals try their strategies on many people, even those who don’t play the lottery. They still find gullible individuals who believe they’ve won without even entering a competition. If you didn’t enter, be very suspicious if you’re contacted about winning.
Spelling Errors in Websites and Emails
Criminals do a lot to prove they’re the real deal but they don’t always tend to the finer details. One reason is that they want to be set up and ready to swindle as soon as possible. This is one of the reasons their websites won’t be well designed. In addition, the content of their emails and text messages may contain spelling and grammar mistakes.
Helpful Tips to Stay Safe While Playing the Lottery
| Tip | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Read Ts and Cs | If you understand the terms and conditions of the lottery sites you use, you’ll know when scammers are acting outside those rules. When you do win, also read the Ts and Cs before claiming your prize, so you know details, such as when you can expect payment and what they want you to do to verify your identity or bank account. Anyone who asks you to do something outside those guidelines is probably trying to scam you. |
| Don’t EVER be impulsive | Take the time to do a background check on anyone asking you to pay over money. If someone is rushing you to make a decision, they’re trying to distract you from the truth and make you feel flustered, so you make impulsive decisions you won’t normally make. |
| Keep it private | Not even banks ask for sensitive personal information as verification. So, if someone is asking you to provide bank details or an ID number, they’re not trustworthy. |
| Learn about site safety | Educate yourself about how to identify untrustworthy sites (see above), so when a scammer uses one you’ll know. |
| Take time to verify |
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| Never pay to receive | No registered lottery operator or reputable online lottery site, like Lotto Agent, will expect payment in order to receive money you legally won. |
| Don’t click on links | If you receive text messages or emails with links, don’t click on them, because they could navigate to a phishing site that steals your personal information, or it can activate malware. |
| Clear those cheques | Receiving a cheque isn’t proof that you have won, because the cheque can bounce. Anyone asking you to pay them or share personal information before the cheque has cleared may be trying to scam you. |
| Report suspicious actions | When you suspect you’re being scammed, report it. Problems with a cheque that bounces can be reported to your bank. You can also share communication, like emails, with the South African Police Service’s Commercial Crime Unit. |
| Hang up / Don’t respond | If you suspect there’s a scammer on the line, hang up so you don’t give them the opportunity to make you second guess yourself. Also ignore emails and text messages that are clearly not from official lottery companies. (See tips on identifying them above). |
Helpful Tips if You’ve Been Scammed
Even people who are cautious sometimes get scammed, so don’t feel bad if you’ve been a victim of any of the fraudulent scenarios described above. The good news is there is a chance that you can prevent or at least limit how much it affects your life.
It’s vital to act quickly, so a scammer doesn’t get a lot of time to cause damage or use your money and personal information. Your plan of action depends on the type of scam that took place, as this guide explains.
| What took place? | Tips and what to do |
|---|---|
| You paid a scammer money via a bank or credit card | Talk to your bank, as they may be able to reverse certain transactions. |
| Paying with a wire transfer | Explain to the bank or wire transfer company that you were a victim of fraud. In some cases they can refund you. |
| Payment via a money app |
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| You sent crypto | Unfortunately, reversing a crypto payment is unlikely or very difficult. However, contact the vendor you use and enquire about their policies and procedures for these cases. |
| You shared personal information, such as name and ID number | There’s no immediate threat, but monitor details such as payments on your credit card and your credit score. If anything seems out of the ordinary, it’s possible someone is using your identity for fraudulent transactions. Inform the bank if you suspect anything. |
| A scammer obtained usernames and/or passwords | Immediately change all login information on any account you have, especially if you use the same or similar passwords for all online platforms. |
| Scammers gained access to a device, such as your phone or computer, or you realise you downloaded malware |
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No matter what happens, do report the incident with the police or your bank if relevant. They may be able to take the necessary steps to prevent others from becoming victims too.
Final Thoughts
The excitement of possibly winning a lottery prize can easily prevent us from thinking clearly. Scammers know this and can use it against you if you’re not careful. Use our guide to keep on being a smart lottery player of your favourite games, whether it’s SuperEnalotto, 49’s Lunchtime or local SA games. You can then have peace of mind that should anyone try to scam you, you’ll easily identify the problem and avoid becoming a victim.
FAQ
Whether or not your bank will refund you money after a lottery scam depends on the bank’s policies and the nature of the scam. In many instances, refunds can be based on an ex-gratia basis. Furthermore, if the bank rejects the claim, victims can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman for Banking Services in which case the claim will be re-investigated. But, this is not a guarantee that they will authorise a refund.
No. A scammer will not be able to withdraw money from your account if they only have your account number. If they have enough personal information, they may be able to steal your identity and perform fraudulent acts in your name.
In South Africa, scammers will require additional personal information from you before they can access your bank account. This is usually your online login information, PIN number to access the account, CVV digits on the back of the credit or debit card and in most instances, your personal information as well.
Lottery scams usually aim to get you to pay “processing fees” or “taxes” for you to claim your alleged prize. In some instances, they may even persuade you to provide personal information which can then be used for identity theft. Look out for these tell-tale signs that it’s a scam:
- You haven’t entered the competition but you are offered a prize.
- According to you your ticket numbers don’t match the published results, but someone contacts you and says you’ve won.
- You’re offered a prize based on randomly drawn mobile numbers or email addresses – no legitimate lottery offers such a service.
- You’re told you’ve been entered into a draw by another individual. No one is authorised to enter your details into a competition without your permission or knowledge.
- Legitimate lotteries will never ask for a fee to cover the transfer of your winnings.
- Information is received via letters or text with poor spelling and grammar.
- You receive photocopied documents that don’t look legit.
Yes. Unfortunately, scammers are constantly looking for new ways to deceive the public into divulging personal information that allows them to be scammed. These scams vary in nature but can be as simple as an SMS claiming that your mobile number has been randomly selected for a prize.
If you suspect that you are being contacted by a potential scammer, you can contact the South African Police Services at your nearest police station. Be sure to notify your bank of any potential attempts to access your personal banking information, or if a lottery related cheque bounces.
Police experts will investigate the number or email address to contact you, however, it very rarely pays off. Scammers are too smart to use information that can be traced back to them. People finder apps, identity caller apps and email search tools don’t work to identify fraudsters either.
Since many people in SA enter the lottery, there have been instances where an actual entrant will receive a message claiming they have won. Since the victim already entered the lotto, they may not be suspicious of the message. However, the National Lottery will never send you a text message notifying you that you have won.
If you bought your ticket at a retail outlet, you did so without needing to submit your phone number, so the lottery doesn’t have access to your number. If you play online, your betting site platform will handle communication.
Online lottery sites may use SMS to communicate with players, but they’ll never ask you to share personal information or make payments to get your prize.
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