With tax season in full swing, the California Lottery is warning players and prospective players to be wary of potential scams.
Lottery officials say this time of year often results in increased fraudulent activity. For years, the agency has heard about scam artists posing as lottery staff in an attempt to steal personal information.
“We’re also hearing about emails from scammers who claim to be connected to some of our bigger winners; they say they’ve been chosen to receive some of the prize money,” Carolyn Becker, a California Lottery spokesperson, said in a statement. “It’s clearly an attempt to dupe people; the Lottery always verifies big winners with a rigorous investigative process to ensure they’re legitimate.”
The agency cautioned:
- The Lottery never charges players to claim their prize or asks for any money up front.
- A Lottery official would never personally contact someone about winning a jackpot before an official claim form is filed.
- There’s no way to win a lottery prize if you don’t play a lottery game.
People actually fall for these scams?
.
The public education system seems to churn put idiots.
That’s exactly what I was thinking.
And who would think that they won the lottery if they didn’t even play?!?
Do you mean the public education system the politicians promised the lottery would fix?
The lottery exists to tax the poor.
Nope. The stupid.
Last year I won the Publishers Clearance Sweepstakes 5 times without entering. I even got to speak with Ed McMahon once because I asked. (Ed died in 2011.) I’m still waiting for Ed and the cameras. 😉
… the biggest scam is the state giving less (%) to the schools over the years….do they ever tell the public …… nooooooo …. skim it off the top & it goes into the General Fund
I would add to the list:
● There’s almost no way to win a lottery prize if you play a lottery game.
Wow. There’s no cure for stupid!
Anything via a phone call looking for personal information, threats of being arrested or threats of your power or other utilities being turned off is a scam. Also calls regarding fraudulent activity on a credit card is a scam. I found out that I cannot get an address for these car warranty calls so I can send them a check, they always want a card number. Another thing, if it seems too good to be true it is Case in point, seen a few ads recently regarding a 20 album rolling Stones box set for 69.99. I looked up the same box set on E-Bay; cheapest set was 699.99
Kinda like state sanctioned numbers rackets. Instead of having numbers runners, covering certain neighborhoods, the states now use convenience stores.
The big scam is the Lottery itself. no transparency for any of our local state games. no viewing of a numbers drawn.
it’s all done by computer now. back when it started they used to televise the draw with a ball machine. the list goes no with fake jackpot amounts. only to be raised by 1 million per game. when probably millions more are going into the games. Zero transparency.
I would think any call that starts with “You won the Lottery!” would be a clue that it’s a scam……..
The biggest tax scam is being run by Gavin Newsom and the Democrats.