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August 27th, 2021
You get an email or a text message, claiming that you won a prize for a contest you never knew about. The prize is something that is super desirable and also really expensive, such as an iPad, car, gift card, and more. You become really excited and click the link in the email or text message, thinking it’s legit. However, this is just one of many clever ways that scammers are able to trick people out of their money. They claim you won something desirable to get you to provide your information, only to scam you out of money in the end. Keep scrolling to read about the signs of lottery scams and how to avoid them this International Lottery Day.
Signs of a Lottery Scam on International Lottery Day
You Need to Pay to Claim The Prize
Scammers will usually claim that you need to pay a small shipping fee in order to claim your prize. They claim that you need to pay this fee using a wire transfer, gift card, or Bitcoin. They use these methods of payment since it’s harder to track where your payment went.
Once you pay the fee, scammers will claim that they are shipping your package to you and to wait a few days. However, a few days later, you realize your package still hasn’t arrived. You try to reach back out to the scammer but realized they blocked you off everything and there’s no possible way to contact them.
They Claim That You Need to Pay More For a Better Chance of Winning
In a real sweepstake or lottery, the prize that you win is completely free. However, in a scammer-ran contest, they claim that you need to pay more to win more.
These are all lies because when you actually do pay more, they just take your money and claim that you need to pay even more. No amount of money is good enough and eventually, you’ll give up and realize that you will never win that prize that they promised.
You Need to Give Your Personal or Financial Information
There should be no reason why you need to give your personal or financial information to someone you don’t know online. If you genuinely won a contest, then all someone would need is your name and the address of where to send the package to. However, if someone needs more information than that, such as a social security number or a birthday, then they are probably a scammer.
Also, if they need financial information of any kind such as a credit card number or bank account information, then they are most likely a scammer. In a true contest, no one would need payment information of any kind to send you your prize.
You Won a Competition You Never Entered
If you don’t remember entering a competition or sweepstakes yet got a message claiming you won, then it’s probably a scam. Legit contests should only involve those who have entered the contest, and would not involve other people who didn’t enter.
Therefore, if you don’t remember entering a contest and yet you got an email or a text message claiming that you won something, it’s best to just ignore the message. Don’t give them your personal or financial information because more than likely, the prize is fake.
The Competition Claims to Be From a Company Who Doesn’t Host Competitions
If you got an email or a text message from a random company, such as Walmart or Amazon, claiming that you won their sweepstakes, then delete it immediately. Unless stated on the company’s official website, usually companies won’t enter their customers in random competitions.
Scammers will often pretend to be well-known companies in order to establish a sense of reputation among the victims they are trying to trick. That’s why if you get a message stating that you won a contest from a random company, it’s best to do your research and don’t give them any personal or financial information about yourself.
How to Avoid Lottery Scams on International Lottery Day
- Don’t believe in a message claiming that you won a prize if you’ve never entered the competition.
- Do your research before believing in a message claiming you won the contest.
- Make sure a certain company is running a contest by checking out their official website before believing that you won.
- Don’t give anyone your personal or financial information to win a contest. The only personal information that should be given out is a name, address, email, and phone number.
- Don’t give anyone money, gift cards, or Bitcoin to win a contest, since you shouldn’t have to pay to win anything.
- Report any scam that you’ve been a part of to the FTC for more information on how to recover from a scam.
Social Catfish is Here to Help You on International Lottery Day!
At Social Catfish, we want to help you verify the identities of those who might seem suspicious to you. If you have their name, email address, phone number, social media username, or image, you can reverse search and see who the suspected person was that you’ve been in contact with if you think you’ve been a victim of lottery scams on International Lottery Day.
