Then in order to claim your prize, you will be asked to pay a fee. The Scammers will often say that these fees are for bank fees, courier charges, government taxes, or other admin fees. The scammers typically make their money by continually collecting these fees from you and stalling the payment of your winnings.

The email or text message you receive will ask you to respond quickly or risk missing out so they create a false sense of urgency. It may also urge you to keep your winnings private or confidential, to ‘maintain security’ or stop other people from getting your prize by mistake. Scammers do this to prevent you from seeking further information or advice from independent sources.

Even if the scammer does not ask you for money straight away, they may just try to keep the lines of communication open so they can gain your trust and then get access to personal or financial information in the future. Lottery scams will often use the names of legitimate overseas lotteries, so that even if you do some superficial research, the scam will appear to be real.