The words “You have won!” is music to anyone’s ears. After all, winning something gives you a great sense of pride that nothing else can provide. But when the “You have won!” claim happens to involve a million dollars or so, then the feeling becomes a bit more overwhelming. In a time like this, almost everybody will welcome any form of financial gain with open arms.
People’s natural vulnerability to money is the driving force behind lottery scams. Lottery scams are emails that are sent to random email addresses with the intention of acquiring the recipients’ personal information for fraudulent means. Here are some of the things you have to keep in mind when you receive a lottery notification via email:
* You cannot win a lottery game that you actually did not enter
Have you ever won a prize in a contest that you did not participate in? Well, that figures. If you did not purchase any lottery tickets or join any raffle draws offered and released by the alleged sweepstakes program responsible for the email notification, then it’s a fake.
* You do not have to pay any handling fees to receive your prize money
One of the most obvious indicators that the lottery notification you receive is indeed a scam is the mention of handling fees. In a lottery scam email, the alleged sweepstakes program responsible for the lottery game asks you to settle a required handling fee so that your prize money can be sent directly at your account. In fact, you are requested to provide all the necessary information to make the transaction possible: your full name, your address, your contact number, your credit card number, or even your social security number. Remember that all genuine lottery games will never ever ask you to pay any handling fees to claim your prize. So, if you read “handling fees” or “transfer charges” anywhere in the email notification, then you should either ignore it or report it to the authorities.