You did not enter a lottery. You did not sign up for a sweepstakes. But your phone rings, or an email arrives, or a letter shows up in your mailbox: congratulations — you have won.
This is one of the oldest and most persistent scams in the world, and it continues to work because the premise is so appealing. Here is how the scam works, and why the presence of any required payment is the only signal you need.
How Lottery and Sweepstakes Scams Work
The scam follows a reliable pattern. You receive unexpected notification of a large prize — often a cash amount, a vehicle, or a vacation. You are told the prize is real, and all you need to do is pay a small fee to claim it. This fee might be described as taxes, processing fees, shipping and handling, customs duties, insurance, or administrative costs.
You pay. Then another fee appears. Or the prize never materializes and the scammer disappears. Either way, you are out the money you paid, and there was never a prize.
In more sophisticated versions of the scam, the fraudster will send you a check — which clears initially — and ask you to wire part of it back to cover “fees.” Days later, the check bounces, and you owe your bank the full amount of the fake check. This is called an advance fee fraud or overpayment scam, and it catches many careful people off guard precisely because the initial deposit appears real.
The One Rule That Eliminates the Scam Entirely
Real prizes do not require payment to collect. Full stop.
If you won a real sweepstakes, the company running it is legally and contractually obligated to deliver your prize. Tax obligations on prize winnings are handled at tax time by the winner — they are not collected in advance by the prize-giver. Any organization asking you to pay money to receive a prize is not giving you a prize. It is taking your money.
This is the only rule you need. Save it, share it, repeat it: if you have to pay to claim the prize, the prize is not real.
Warning Signs to Watch For
Beyond the payment requirement, here are the additional signals that should raise immediate concern:
- You did not enter. You cannot win a lottery you never entered. Legitimate sweepstakes require entry. If you do not remember entering, you did not win.
- You are asked to keep it secret. Real prize notifications do not ask for secrecy. If the caller or letter warns you not to tell your family or bank, that is the scam protecting itself from the people most likely to talk you out of it.
- The notification came unsolicited by phone, email, or mail. Real major prize notifications from organizations like Publishers Clearing House are delivered in person, not by a single phone call or email.
- The prize is from a foreign lottery. It is illegal for U.S. residents to play foreign lotteries, and legitimate foreign lotteries do not contact Americans by phone or mail to announce winnings.
- They need your banking information to deposit the prize. This is a different angle on the same scam — instead of asking for payment, they say they need your account number to send you money. What they actually do is drain the account.
- Urgency is part of the script. “You must claim within 48 hours or the prize goes to the next winner” is designed to stop you from thinking or consulting anyone. Real prizes do not evaporate if you take time to verify.
What to Do If You Receive One of These Notifications
If you get a call, email, or letter claiming you have won a prize, treat it as a scam unless you can independently verify it through official channels — not through any contact information provided by the notification itself.
Do not call back the number they give you. Do not click any link in an email. Do not reply to a letter using the return address provided. If you believe the notification might be from a real company, look up that company’s official contact information independently and call them directly.
If you or someone you know has already sent money in response to a lottery or sweepstakes notification, report it to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and contact your bank immediately. If payment was made by wire transfer, contact the sending bank or wire service as quickly as possible — recovery windows are short but sometimes possible.
Why These Scams Keep Working
Lottery scams are not successful because their targets are unintelligent. They work because the human brain responds to unexpected good fortune with hope, and hope is difficult to override with skepticism. The scammers count on the moment of “what if it is real?” to carry you past the warning signs.
The best protection is a rule simple enough to apply in that emotional moment: payment means it is not real. No exceptions.
If you want to help protect someone you care about from scams like this, LurkAlert was built for exactly that purpose.
