How to tell if you have received a lottery scam letter

PART II: It's not the names in the letter that make it a fraud. The letter is a fraud because of what it says!

How can you be sure you've received a Lottery Scam Letter?

The letter is a scam if:

1. You did not buy a ticket.

2. You do not live in the lottery country and you are not a citizen of the lottery country.

3. You did not register your name, street address, email address, phone number, and a credit card BEFORE you were allowed to buy a ticket on an online lottery web site.

4. Your email inbox and surface mail box are not loaded with months worth of advertising for that lottery and its games.

5. You never heard of the lottery name.

6. The letter contains at least ONE of the claims and statements listed below.

There is no such thing as a random email lottery. It is against the law for anyone to make use of your email address without your permission and no legitimate business will ever do it.

|> Red flags: A "red flag" is what law enforcement investigators call something in an investigation that looks criminal, evidence that is known from experience to be used by criminals. If you cannot independently verify the legitimacy of the person who has contacted you, DO NOT provide any personal information whatsoever! Lottery scam letters arrive by BOTH email and regular post.

|> The letter contains any one of the following phrases or an portion of the following phrases:

	All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 30,000 names from Australia, New Zealand, America, Asia, Europe, Africa, USA and North America as part of our International Promotions Program, which will subsequently be conducted annually.
	Mention of any kind of claim agent.

"Due to the mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this award strictly from public notice until your claim has been processed and your money remitted to your account. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming or unscrupulous acts by participants of this program."

"N.B. Any breach of confidentiality on the part of the winners will result to disqualification."

"You are seriously advised to keep all winning lottery information and numbers from the public in line with our company security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by unscrupulous individuals."

"Due to the mixed up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep this winning a top secret from the public notice until your claims has been processed and remitted to your account as this is apart of the security protocol, to avoid double claiming or unwarranted taking advantage of this program by participants."

"All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies."

"This lottery was promoted and sponsored by ...

Ted Turner

Jesse Jackson

Ken Evoy

Bill Gates

The Sultan of Brunei

Microsoft

|> A request for money: The most important red flag is a request for money. The request usually appears in the 2nd or 3rd letter, either at the same time as the request for personal information or in a letter that arrives once you've provided your personal information. Lottery Scam Letters are what is called an Advance Fee Fraud. If you have won a lottery, you do not pay any upfront fees to anyone at any time for any reason. You pay income taxes to your government only by filing your government's income tax forms and sending your money directly to your government yourself. Taxes for foreign governments are removed directly from the winnings before payout.

|> No legitimate lottery web site exists without legitimate rules posted: Legitimate rules can be verified by going to the web site of government-sponsored lotteries. You can find a list of government-sponsored lotteries and all their rules and regulations at Interlotto.com. Compare these with what you see at the web site listed in the lottery letter.

|> A call to the local embassy or consulate reveals that the lottery is a scam: Sometimes a country is listed, sometimes it isn't. When it is, a call to your local embassy or consulate of that country is will reveal to you that the letter is bogus. However, it is strongly advised that you take a look at all points made on this page because swindlers may use a legitimate lottery name for their scam.

|> No country of origin is listed.

|> No licenses or registrations are available for independent verification: Independent verification means that you verify all claims by asking other sources. The truth cannot be verified by asking the person who is making the claim. All legitimate lotteries are licensed and registered with the appropriate gaming committee.

|> A statement that the funds will be sent to you by a courier or security service and that you have to pay the courier service for the delivery and/or storage.

|> Any request for money to pay for anything whatsoever.

|> You are told that you have to travel to the country where the lottery was held in order to claim your winnings:

This is a trick to get you to say that you will not travel to any country to pick up your winnings. Their reply is to give you all kinds of phony reasons for paying false fees in order to get the winnings to you.

|> You are sent a check written on the account of a person or company you do not know, or you are sent a cashier's check (bank check). Either way you are told that you must deposit the check and send some of the money either back to them or on to another person. THE CHECK IS COUNTERFEIT and you will be held responsible for the full value of the check. See really verify corporate and Cashier's Checks.

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