4 Extremely Dangerous Lottery Scams — Read Till the End

Lottery scams are the bane that still cannot be expunged. People literally prey on lottery players, especially seniors! I cannot even imagine how evil you should be to do such a thing. Can’t these scammers earn their fair wage with a fair day’s work? I hope, I honestly hope you haven’t been a target of a scam, not necessarily connected with the lottery but in general. Nonetheless, I do not have the expertise to talk about other areas, but I do know a lot about lottery scams.

Here you can learn more about lottery scams in general, and I’m going to take you through the 4 extremely dangerous lottery scams you should watch out for. Note, they might seem stupid and you might think “How could someone fall for this?” The truth is, thousands of people get deceived every year around the world.

First and Foremost, How Can Lottery Scams Harm You

These people sure can be creative. I’ve come up with 3 different categories of lottery scams, one of which is plain stupid. I don’t know why would somebody do such a thing. For what it’s worth, here is my take on lottery scams.

Steal Your Identity – Get a Hold of Your Personal PRIVATE Information

If the victim cannot assume what the objective of the scam is, the easier it is to carry out the scam successfully. Many lottery players have no idea that their private, personal information is of great importance. If another person has access to this information, it could pretty much sabotage you in every way possible. Usually, the scammers ask the victims to register, which expectedly requires the entire personal details, such as first name, last name, address and in some instances the social security number. Most of these scams also can require the player to provide a credit card, but only for verification purposes. Yeah, right.

Get Access to Your Bank Information and Bank Details

Now, imagine a scammer has already stolen the identity of another victim. The scammer sets up a website, opens a bank account online and voila! Somebody is unaware that he/she is an operator, owner of a business. Now, you are welcome to register, and make a deposit, but not necessarily. You can be required to only provide the details. The scammer then, sells the credit card details on the deep web. You see how you cannot target the scammer, he/she can’t be located/identified?

That’s why it’s better to trust your gut feeling and pass on that spectacular SIGN UP offer.

Waste Your Time – Drown You in Unnecessary Legal Proceedings

I had to come up with a title, don’t blame me. It’s not my fault these scammers really don’t have anything else to do, so they simply waste people’s time. These scams look like the previous two, it’s just that the scammer doesn’t have the guts to pull the trigger. In other words, he/she simply wastes your time. Even if the scammer is sloppy and leaves a trace, it’ll take weeks, months or even years before you punish him/her.

Now, I can show you the most common, yet very dangerous lottery scams. I’m not proud of this, but somebody has to do it.

Fake Online Lottery Retailers – Steal Your Money and Your Winnings

Online lottery retailers are subject to rigorous licensing, long agreements that act as guidelines for the operator’s activities. However, the threat of rogue retailers has never been more real. Online lottery is growing in popularity and volume, ergo the number of rogue lottery retailers is growing as well. Bear in mind, I’m not saying rogue lotteries. Instead, I’m stressing the issue of rogue online resellers. In a way, they’re worse than dealing with a shady lottery.

Why?

Because these retailers can also steal your winnings. This is the point when you actually are harmed. If you didn’t win, nobody cares. You can’t blame anyone. However, if you win, how can you prove you were the rightful owner of the winning lottery ticket, when the reseller can simply delete its database?

Once you’ve registered with a given online lottery ticket seller, it’s best to stick with it, especially if you already have a nurtured relationship.

Asking Customers to Pay for Random Fees in Advance

Unlike the previous type of lottery scam, this one is not as dangerous, yet it poses as a threat for the common man’s wallet. Moreover, the scammer “notifies” the player that he/she has won the lottery. However, there’s a big “BUT” here. In order for the “lottery official” to pay out the “winnings” the winner has to cover a certain fee. It may not necessarily be a suspicious sum of money, such as $100 or $500, but there’ve been cases when the scammer literally latches on to the victim, sucking them dry.

For example, there was a case when the scammer pinpointed a senior citizen with Alzheimer’s. It’s one evil, ghastly illness, I probably fear the most. Nevertheless, the scammer was calling him regularly, his persistence eventually paid off. The senior spent his entire savings. He was paying off non-existent fees, for a lottery prize he never won. I repeat, NO LOTTERY OPERATOR WILL ASK OF YOU TO COVER ANY FEE.

Shady Lotteries – Winners Never Receive Winnings

Similar to the first type, but this time around, it’s easier to realize that you’re actually being scammed. I mean, if you have any idea how an official online lottery looks like, then you’re in the clear. However, players who are too lazy to check for reviews, check if the lottery is licensed, maybe check out some past experiences, usually are the ones who end up at the bitter end.

I call this type of players “sleepy” players, not “sloppy”. They always find out about lottery news too late. So, it works like this. Similar to the lottery retailer, but this time you got nobody to blame. It’s a fictive entity, an illegally run lottery. You’ve been playing this scam lottery for months, you’ve won a few secondary prizes. Instead of paying you out, the operator offers you a deal, you can get discounted lottery tickets if you buy them with your winnings. You think, this is a good deal, and go for it.

This happens once or twice, and then you decide you want to withdraw. All of a sudden, the customer support is gone. You never, ever hear anything from them. Feels bad, right? Sure it does.

That’s why I always point out the fact that you should watch out what lottery you play.

Phone Lottery Scams – These Are the Most Annoying

Literally the most vicious type of lottery scams, phone scams. However, these go across other areas as well. I’m trying to alert my own kind, lottery players. It goes something like this. The scammer sends out a bunch of emails, letters, basically he/she creates its own leads. The letters, the emails, contain contact information, stating how you’ve won the lottery and that you should call a given phone number. As any common individual, you’d expect the number to look differently, and it does. This is a kind of phone number used in time of crisis, when donation phone lines are open. In other words, as soon as you dial the number, you’re charged a given amount of money. The owner of this number can set up a recorded message that has nothing to do with the actual situation, meaning it can say that all operators are busy.

The life cycle of this kind of scams is short, which is why it’s hard to detect them. I’m telling you, question everything!

A Word of Advice – If You Haven’t Bought a Ticket, You CAN’T WIN

The only thing a person must do to win any lottery is to buy a lottery ticket. Even USA’s Green Card lottery requires individuals to apply for one. I don’t get these people. You haven’t bought a lottery ticket, you can’t win anything! It’s that simple. So, if you receive an offer of some kind, for instance, that you’ve won the lottery, ignore it. Even better, report it! Us lottery players are a close community. All it takes is one report and the news will spread across the World Wide Web. Spare yourself and those around you, with a simple ignore!