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Scamalot allows you to validate your winning lottery email or lotto details so you don't get scammed.
Validate your Lottery Winnings Now with the Scamalot Lottery Verification Service
The Scamalot Lottery/Lotto Validation Service is a tool which uses data from Scamdex and intended to educate people about Unsolicited Scam Lotteries that announce winnings by email.
In nearly all cases these lotteries are scams intended to extract money from the victims in the form of fees - courier, taxes, duties, transfer fees etc. The 'winning' is always large ($1,000,000 or more) which makes any fees seem trivial. In all cases the scammer will claim that the fees cannot be taken from the winnings, the fees must be paid upfront. Any fees collected from the victim will always result in demands for more fees until the victim realises he has been 'had'.
The scam operators often live in poorly governed countries where crime is unofficially sanctioned or a way of life. Considerable amounts of money are extorted through these lotteries which in turn makes it a very lucrative business. The sophistication of the operation reflects the huge profits to be made, most of which ends up in the hands of organized crime syndicates or terrorist organizations.
Scamalot uses the huge archive of scam emails at scamdex.com to show examples of fraudulent email lotteries. Legitimate online lotteries do exist and almost always have an online lottery presence. Always search for the correct website when checking any lottery winnings and watch out for 'spoof' websites claiming to be the 'official one'.
Basic Checks to Validate....
Your Lottery Is a Fraud if....
- It came from (or wants a reply to) a 'free' email account (@hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @msn.com, @aol.com etc) it is fraudulent.
- They require any 'fees' to be paid before winnings can be delivered, it is fraudulent.
- They ask you to 'confirm' your bank account details so that they can pay your winnings in directly it is fraudulent.
If in doubt, suspect a scam and tread carefully.
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The vast majority of lottery winning notifications received by email are scams. No amount of official looking logos, reference numbers of certificates can disguise the fact that these lotteries are complete fraud. The goal of Lottery Scams is to make the victim spend money to receive the full winnings. No bona fide lottery will ever ask you to pay anything to collect winnings. There has never been an 'Email Lottery' where an email address is randomly picked to win a large prize. This is always a scam. Large organizations such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Toyota, Google etc. are not in the lottery business, and if they ever do hold a sweepstake, they will always make sure that they have an official entry form completed by the entrant.. |
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Common Non-Lottery-Running Lottery Scams |