Lotteries are highly popular these days, but at the same time they are often used by cybercriminals to scam people, taking advantage of their ignorance or just a lack of attention. Today, we’d like to present you some of the methods used the most often to trick the unaware internet users. May this be a safety reminder and a guideline so you don’t fall prey to one of such activities.
Impostors are perfectly aware of the fact that many people dream of winning the lottery, making it a perfect way to take advantage of a lack of attention, gullibility or plain naivety. Rational thinking is the best way to secure yourself – you can’t win if you haven’t bought a lotto ticket! Remember, if somebody tries to convince you that you have won, even though you haven’t played or haven’t received a ticket as a gift, there’s no such possibility. You can clearly assume that somebody is trying to scam you, therefore you should not only ignore such information, but notify the authorities of such an attempt.
Most attempts to exploit the lack of knowledge and precaution usually happen online. Numerous people receives an email message, informing them about a lotto win. Senders of such messages are usually trying to obtain personal data. Sometimes they are expecting the user to give out his credit card numbers or make a wire transfer for the winning’s handling costs. Unfortunately, many fall prey to such tricks and afterwards realize that they haven’t participated in any kind of a lottery. You should always remember that the lottery organizer or a website offering lottery tickets online wouldn’t ever expect the player to pay any sort of fees to claim your prize. Such costs are being deducted from the winning itself!
Another type of a highly spreading e-mail scam are messages pretending to be sent by the lottery organizer or an official websites, oferring the possibility to play lotto online, as they look almost the same, but actually they are a fake prepared by the scammers. Such messages usually include links that are supposed to lead you to an official site, allowing to play lotto online. Unfortunately, the target page is a scam, so the player ends up sending his money to a crook and not a legit website. This is why you should carefully check not only the content of such a message, but also take a close look at the included link. The target address often differs with just a single letter when compared to the official website, but even a single sign makes the difference, which may lead you to a scam site.
Scammers also try to catch their preys using phone calls. How does it work? Scammers call random numbers and when they reach you, they will try to convince you, that you have just won a jackpot in MegaMillions, Powerball or any other lottery. They are really persuasive so you can end up with giving out your personal data or even your credit card data. They are usually targeting real lotto players, so their task is much easier. Remember, they are really good at telling stories. One of the most important facts: lottery organizers or their employees never reach out to the players by phone just to inform them they’ve won. Especially, that you don’t give out your phone number while getting the ticket. Besides, it’s the player’s best interest to claim the prize, so it’s rather unlikely that the lottery organizers will be seeking to find the winner.
Those are just a few examples of methods used by scammers to steal personal data or money from a random victim. Apart from dreaming of a big win, being cautious and thinking rationally is always needed in the lotto world. Playing lotto online is fun, but you should only use trustworthy websites, allowing to buy tickets online in a safe manner.
Click here to read our article about lottery cheating and lottery scams.
If you’d like to play your favourite lottery, pick your lucky numbers and get your tickets at LottoPark, a trustworthy site, where your safety is our top priority. Then check latest lotto draw results to verify your lucky numbers and all the winning numbers chosen during the draw ceremony.
