What
Are Prize and Lottery Scams?
By Urban Sotensek Platinum Quality Author
Lottery
Scam is a form of advance fee fraud or money laundering. Every
day thousands of false emails are sent to potential victims.
You may be tempted to try out if the scam is real, but doing
so can be dangerous. If you post any of your personal information,
the scammer may collect it and in some later case will play
YOU as his character. There is no need telling he will use
your name for fraudulent activities. He may use your personal
information to get jobs in your name. He may use it to steal
from people and transfer the money into an account with your
name. All your money may be used and gone if a scammer obtains
sensitive information. During the procedure of a lottery scam
you may lose your money or your identity could be stolen.
Both of them are equally dangerous.
How
to Recognize Lottery Scams?
1.
You received the "winning email" but you have not
participated in the contest or bought a ticket. Institutions
can't just randomly pick you if you are not even in their
database! To win in a contest you firstly had to enter it
by the means that your institution required. In a lottery
you do that usually with purchasing a ticket but some require
different means to enter the contest such as writing a song,
making of an item, giving your best idea on a certain subject...
List is endless, however the all of them have one thing in
common, you must personally participate! It is against the
law to make use of your email address without your permission.
2.
The country of the lottery does not match your living country
or you are not citizen of it.
3.
Without entering the contest in the first place you received
an email including your personal information. This email could
include your name, address, city and zip code, phone number
and maybe even your credit card or bank account number! If
you did not personally enter this information and did not
participate in the contest you may even have been a victim
of identity fraud!
4.
If you wanted to buy a lottery ticket you did not have to
enter your personal information.
5.
You never heard of the lottery company. Even if the name is
real and is registered it may still just be a masquerade.
Swindlers may use legitimate names for their fraud activities.
6.
You are being said that "Participants" were selected
randomly from any world wide country and the price is part
of a promotion program.
7.
Any request for money to be paid in advance. Usually such
requests occur in later replies and not in the first "winning
notification". Any fees that could occur would be directly
deducted from your actual win or for paying taxes you only
do this with the usual method by filling the tax form and
sending it directly to your government. Foreign government
taxes are being deducted before payout. Such a scam is called
an advance fee fraud. Legitimate lotteries will never ask
for money!
8.
There is no website or official rules. All lotteries must
be registered and licensed with a gaming commission or regulator.
A regulator may be ministry of finance, ministry of economics,
national gaming authority... Click here for an example list
of regulators in Europe. World Lotteries provides a great
list of official government lotteries. Check under directory.
Also visit North American Association of State and Provincial
Lotteries if you are interested.
9.
You are being sent a counterfeit check or money that needs
to be cleaned. Once you receive this amount you will be told
you need to give some amount back or forward it to a bank
account/person because too much was sent. This way you will
clean the money. The checks/drafts may be stolen or counterfeit.
Read more in Check Fraud.
10.
You have to travel to another country in order to claim your
winnings. If you would travel you would probably soon recognize
there is no prize waiting for you or you would meet face to
face your scammer which could be potentially dangerous. This
"rule" also is used to fool you. Rarely someone
is willing to travel for a supposed prize they know nothing
of. Swindlers know this, so once you say you will not travel
they will make up fees you have to pay to claim your win.
Urban
is an expert in fraud investigation, SEO, online marketing
and business. This article is just an excerpt of Lottery Scam
To read more go to Fake Lottery Prizes
Article
Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Urban_Sotensek
