Hi Olivia,

Unexpected prize and lottery scams work by asking you to pay some sort of fee in order to claim your prize or winnings from a competition or lottery you never entered.

In order to receive the winnings, the user is asked to send money – ranging from a few hundred to several thousand dollars – to a specified account. This is ostensibly to meet expenses like money transfer commission, taxes, fees for opening a bank account, etc.

The prize you have ‘won’ could be anything from a tropical holiday to electronic equipment such as a laptop or a smartphone, or even money from an international lottery.

Alternatively the scammer will collect a premium rate on the phone number you are asked to dial (usually starting with 190). They will try to keep you on the line for a long time in order to clock up a hefty charge, and may even ask you to call a second premium rate number.

You may also be asked to provide personal details to prove that you are the correct winner and to give your bank account details so the prize can be sent to you. Scammers use these details to try to misuse your identity and steal any money you have in your bank account.

How to Protect yourself

According to Kaspersky Lab’s statistics, messages like this can make up as much as three percent of all spam in any given month – that’s thousands of messages. To avoid falling victim to online fraud, you need to follow some simple rules:

1. Remember, you cannot win a cash prize in a lottery you have not participated in.
2. Do not trust automatically translated messages or those containing obvious mistakes.
3. Always check the sender’s email address(es). Lottery organizers will not send messages from free mail services.
4. If you still think the message you have received is about a real win, check all the information. Use search engines to look at the lottery name, the senders’ names and telephone numbers. Among the search results you may find detailed commentary.
5. If you think it’s a scam, don't respond — scammers will use a personal touch to play on your emotions to get what they want.
6. Never send money or give credit card, online account details, or copies of important personal documents to anyone you don’t know or trust and never by email.
7. Avoid any arrangement with a stranger that asks for up-front payment via money order, wire transfer, international funds transfer, pre-loaded card or electronic currency. It is rare to recover money sent this way.

I hope this helps.

Regards,
Lokesh