Lottery Scams
Thursday January 22, 2009
Lottery scams are one of the unfortunate parts of lottery history, and they have been around for a long time. The Internet has provided many more opportunities for clever scammers to make their livings, however. Using emails, false sites and promises of great riches at a low price, lottery scams can be quite convincing. Even people who believe they are too clever to fall for lottery scams can be taken in, especially if they receive an email at a particularly bad time. Luckily, there are many ways to spot lottery scams that you receive via email.
First of all, the email will claim that you have won an international lottery or some such. If you live in Australia, a scammer is unlikely to mention the Tuesday Oz Lotto or Thursday Powerball or any other lottery you may be familiar with. Usually, the email will claim that your name was found and drawn as the lucky winner of an obscene amount of money, often in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Now, you should note that this email would have been unsolicited. When was the last time you found a lottery worth hundreds of millions of dollars that went out to find entrants and then entered them for free? How exactly would that lottery make any money to afford a massive top prize? It's too good to be true, which is how many types of scams can be identified.
Often, the email will claim that in order for you to claim your prize, you will need to pay administration fees. Smarter scammers will claim that it is technically illegal for you to receive the prize, being overseas and all, but if you keep quiet everything should go well. The best scams always make the victim feel that they will get in legal trouble for reporting the incident (the very best actually do involve the victim in illegal activity).
If you find a lottery scam email in your inbox, DO NOT RESPOND TO IT. Do not reply to it, as the scammers will likely continue to send you emails in order to convince you of their legitimacy if you reply. Contact the relevant authorities and report the attempt.
Please browse our site to read more about lottery scams, read about lottery strategy, the Saturday Lotto and much more. Also, please use our online entry facilities if you are interested in entering an Australian lottery.
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