A new round of lottery scams appears to be hitting in Iowa right now. Our regional offices in Mason City and Cedar Rapids have both gotten multiple calls and in-person visits over the past few days from people who say they’ve been contacted about winning a Powerball® prize. The callers were cautious, thinking it was a scam – and they’re right.
The scammers appear to be using a couple different approaches: Some of the folks who contacted us said they’d received an email that asked them to respond with a text. Others said they’d received a text asking them to respond with their personal information in an email.
One of the messages put the scam attempt this way: Your Number has Won $420,000.00, from Powerball Lotto. Kindly send, your Full Name, Address, Age and Tel No; to Taylor Robert via email.
(I purposefully included the numerous punctuation errors that were in the message so you could see them.)
Here’s the thing to remember when it comes to contacts like this: When you buy a Powerball ticket, we don’t know your identity. We can tell that the ticket has been purchased, but we don’t know that you’re the person who bought it. So, how could we contact you to tell you in advance that you’ve won a prize? You contact us and present your winning ticket to claim a prize, not the other way around. As I say in the video above, you really can’t have won if you didn’t play.
One other note about the particular scam message above: $420,000 is NOT one of the prize levels in Powerball, so that’s not even an amount you can win in the game.
Protect yourself. Be on the look-out for scams. And NEVER give out your personal information over the telephone or via email or text. Please check out our Player Security reminders for further information.
Hi again, Lisa. The situation you're describing is caused when a particular combination of numbers sells out in the Pick 3 and Pick 4 games. That restriction has always been in place in the games, so since 1998 in Pick 3 and since 2009 in Pick 4. Any state that offers a Pick 3 or Pick 4 game has the limitation in place. We've written about it several times through the years. Below is a link to a blog entry we posted back in 2009 when the combinations 9-9-9 and 9-9-0-9 sold out on Sept. 9, 2009. The same thing happened with 7-7-7 and 7-7-0-7 on July 7, 2007. A lot of times the particular combination that sells out is tied to a date, but other times, the reason behind the popularity of a combination may not be as clear. They do happen from time to time.
http://www.ialotteryblog.com/2009/09/yesterdays-date-caused-lottery-sellouts.html
Posted by: Mary Neubauer | May 25, 2017 at 03:24 PM
Lets Be Clear Here! The Current Scam going on is with the Iowa Lottery. I was told that I have to get my tickets prior to 11:58 Am on the play slips on the website to play pick four and pick 3 tickets. Today at 11"30 Am at Cahseys in North Liberty Iowa I was denied the right to purchase my numbers 9852 on the grounds that the lottery had already sold that number and wasn't allowed for me to purchase it. I was told before by the Iowa Lottery that I have to make sure to avoid issues at the machine towards draw time and to come in at least 30 minutes prior now today I am being told by the Iowa lottery if I want to secure a number set I need to buy it days in advance. Where do you see a the sales desk at the site of selling that you won[t be able to buy any number you want, where on the play card does it state clearly if you don't choose a particular set of numbers by a certain time you won't be able to purchase it. Where is the people who sell lottery tickets informed that customers are NOT ABLE TO BUY ALL NUMBERS when they want? Where is any of this information posted at the sale counter Iowa Lottery. All I can say is it is 12:13 PM on 5'24'2017 and I was denied the right to purchase a lottery ticket thirty minutes prior to lottery sale time. So if you are a hopeful sole out there hoping to catch those millions from the Iowa lottery you better get your numbers in days in advance to assure the machine does not run out of numbers or ability to sale you a ticket! Posted by Lisa Newell
Posted by: nift165 | May 24, 2017 at 12:15 PM