Odds Are You're Not a Winner

Friday, Jul 11, 2008

LITTLE ROCK – A lottery scam is not a new phenomenon. In fact, every day, thousands of Arkansans are notified, usually by email, that they are big winners in international sweepstakes. The allure of a million dollar payout, or more, can be hard to resist, as is evident by reports this week that an elderly woman in Rogers was scammed out of $48,000 when she tried to collect supposed winnings from an Australian lottery. She is not, however, the only victim of a lottery scam lately. Thus, today, Attorney General Dustin McDaniel issued this consumer alert to warn Arkansans about the recent uptick in sweepstakes scams.

"When people receive emails or telemarketing calls alerting them that they are lottery winners, they should ignore them, because, if they respond, there's a high probability that they will end up losing a lot and winning nothing," said McDaniel. "There are no legitimate international lotteries that will provide winnings to Arkansas residents, and any offer promising a cash payout from an international lottery is a scam."

Generally, in a lottery scam, the consumer is notified that he has won a large amount of money from a foreign country. If the consumer is contacted via email, he is instructed to click on a link and enter his personal financial information on a seemingly legitimate Web page. If the consumer is contacted by phone, he may be instructed to wire money to a foreign bank account "to help pay the deposit for the winnings." If the consumer is contacted via regular mail, the notification may even include a check, which is fake and only meant to encourage the consumer to wire funds to the con-artist's account. Regardless of how the consumer is notified, once the consumer turns over his bank account information or wires the funds, there is a good chance the consumer will lose more money than he ever stood to actually collect.

To avoid becoming a victim of a sweepstakes scam, the Attorney General offers the following tips:

- Don't try to collect winnings from a lottery that you don't remember entering;
- Don't give out your personal bank account information to people you don't know and don't trust;
- Don't pay any money up front, especially to claim something you won. Once you send in money, it's unlikely you will see it ever again;
- Don't read emails or open attachments on emails from people you don't know or don't trust; and
- Don't let your hopes get in the way of your good judgment—if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.