What: Lottery scam is a type of fraud where targets receive unexpected notification of their winning of a large sum of money and to claim the prize money, targets are asked to divulge personal and/or financial information. In this scam, the targets never receive any prize money, instead, they lose their own funds to fraudsters.

How: In a typical lottery scam, fraudsters send bulk messages through Email/SMS/WhatsApp informing the targets that they have won a lottery or prize money. The message content may provoke targets to click on a web link in the text body or establish contact on a number or e-mail ID, and to pay processing fees/transfer charges to claim the prize. Language of such messages seems legitimate and targets fall prey to it. The fraudsters are persuasive, who make the calls and speak excellent English using well-practiced scripts. They may pose as lawyers, claims agents, bankers, law enforcement agents, and or use any title that makes them sound trustworthy and convincing.

Safeguards:

• Never divulge or share any sensitive information i.e. banking details, OTP, PIN, credit card information, etc. over phone/ email/SMS/WhatsApp.
• In case of any suspicion, call your organization claiming to be giving lottery, directly on their registered/published number and validate the authenticity of the claim.
• Delete or mark as spam any email with a suspicious subject line referencing lottery winnings.
• If you have given your personal/financial information to the fraudsters, alert your bank immediately.
• Always remember that “if you have not bought a ticket, you will not win the lottery”.