State Consumer Protection Officials Seeing More Foreign Lottery Scams

Monday, March 14th, 2022 -- 11:01 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) State consumer protection officials have been seeing an increase in the number of scams purporting to be from foreign lotteries.

Consumer protection director Michael Domke says typically whoever is on the other side of the scam wants you to take strange steps to get your money. "If they're asking you for access or bank card numbers. But then also the way that they're asking you to pay for those extra chances or paying for shipping and handling, or maybe have to pay some fees to claim your prize."

Domke says the state has been seeing a resurgence of these sorts of scams in people's inboxes and text messages. "They ask you to pay in gift cards or through cryptocurrency or some really odd way or mechanism to pay for something that you wouldn't typically think, 'Hey, this is how this should be run.'"

In most cases, the scammers try to get you to pay for this supposed prize with gift cards or by getting access to your computer. "If you get a text from an unknown number, certainly don't click on any links on it. If you get those phone calls, don't answer them. And if you get an email, just don't open it."

As ever, Domke says the best thing to do with unsolicited messages like this is to simply ignore them. Remember that it's illegal to require someone to pay for winning a lottery prize and that no legitimate contest will work like this.

If you do run into trouble or think you've been scammed contact your local law enforcement.

Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.