We’ve been warning about it for years, but some recent examples in Delaware are a reminder to us all to be on the look-out for lottery scams.
Back in 2007, the lottery held a news conference with Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller to warn folks about the wave of lottery scams that were hitting at that time. The scams often involve counterfeit checks, fake letters, and promises of a prize that will be paid if you will just pay a few fees in advance. In the end, if you’re a victim, you lose your money -- often thousands of dollars.
Unfortunately, the scams haven’t stopped in the years since then. We get calls, e-mails and letters nearly every day from people ask about information they’ve received that clearly has come from scammers. We do our best to warn them away from falling victim.
Why is it so hard to stop the scams? The people behind them often operate from outside the United States and keep their operations on the move, making it almost impossible to track them.
And why, you ask, do people fall for the scams? Well, everyone wants to think they’ve won, right? And the scammers can be extremely convincing.
The Delaware Lottery recently joined with the Attorney General in that state to issue a warning about an elaborate new scheme they were seeing in their area. Click here to read a media report about the issues there.
We keep on our website warnings about scams as well as general player security information that it’s good to know. Click here to go to our Player Security page.
Be smart. Learn what you need to know to protect yourself against scams. And remember, if you didn’t buy a ticket, you did not win the lottery.
LOL, Mike!
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | September 20, 2010 at 12:22 PM
...and if you did buy a ticket you probably didn't win the lottery,either.
Posted by: Mike byrne | September 20, 2010 at 09:45 AM