The official national lottery site is national-lottery.co.uk NOT lottery.co.uk. My advise is to proceed with extreme caution.

There are affiliate links on this page. Read our disclosure policy to learn more.

1. Sports betting is the activity of predicting sports results and placing a wager on the outcome. The frequency of sports bet upon varies by culture, with the vast majority of bets being placed on association football, American football, basketball, baseball, hockey, track cycling, auto racing, mixed martial arts, and boxing at both the amateur and professional levels.
2. Sometimes, after a large lottery draw, you may see people posting that they are the lucky winner, maybe even complete with a photo of their winning lottery ticket. These people want you to believe that they’re going to offer some legitimate online lottery generosity, sharing a portion of their win with everyone who likes, shares, retweets,.

Sample Lottery Scam Email: THE FREE LOTTO COMPANY

'The Free Lotto Company' just sent you an email, saying you won hundreds of thousands of 'Great British Pounds'? We have one bit of advice: don't quick your job just yet. It is a scam. Interestingly, the email claims they are 'the world's most famous free lotto service'.. yet you, and no one you know has ever heard of them... sure... And, they're 'proudly sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation, the Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers, Mackintosh and a conglomeration of other international IT companies.... to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide.'

After reading that, if you still believe it is real, then we must suggest that you are an utter moron. Perhaps your friends and family don't say it to your face, but to believe this pile of nonsense, you must be.

There's no such thing as a FREE lotto or lottery. Think about it! Where would their money to give away come from and why? Microsoft? 'to promote use of the internet'? Oh, sure, Bill Gates and Michael Dell probably lie awake at night worrying how to get people to use the internet. There are many other signs that this is a fraud, not the least of which is that no legitimate lottery uses email to notify its winners!

And a legitimate lottery certainly would not use free hotmail, yahoo, elitist, or aim email accounts. Especially a free account from Hong Kong for a lottery that is supposed to be based in England.

In addition to the usual clues, notice the gibberish writing, excessive/incorrect use of CAPITAL letters, lack of decent punctuation.. The sentences don't even make sense. Hardly what a professional (i.e., real) lottery would do. Note the other clues to an obvious fraud that we have highlighted in the letter; keep confidential, selected by a random computer lottery of email addresses, use of free email accounts, etc.

Here is a typical scam lottery winning notification.

Also see this page for a sample in the UK.

THE FREE LOTTO COMPANY <flc_financier@yahoo.com.hk> wrote:

Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 22:48:26 -0500 (EST)
Subject: [SPAM] WINNING NOTIFICATION
From: 'THE FREE LOTTO COMPANY' < flc_financier@yahoo.com.hk >
THE FREE LOTTO COMPANY
28 Tanfied Road
Croydon.London
United Kingdom
(Customer Service)
Ref No: uk/090/332/FL
Batch No: QWN/87648-34/FL
WINNING NOTIFICATION we happily announce to you the draw of the Free Lotto International programs held on the 5th of February, 2007.
Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 740 8001310 110 with Serial number 8191/11 drew the lucky numbers: 61-9-16-64-86-2, which subsequently won you the lottery in the 2nd category.
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of £1,000,000.00(One million Great British pound sterling) in cash credited.
This is from a total cash prize of £520,000,000 (Five hundred and Two million pounds sterling) shared amongst the lucky winners in this grand category.
This year Lottery Program Jackpot is the largest ever for Free Lottery.
The estimated £237 million jackpot would be the sixth-biggest in free lotto history. The biggest was the £363 million jackpot that went to two winners in a May 2000 drawing of The Big Game Mega Millions' predecessor.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our United Kingdom booklet representative office in London as indicated in our play coupon.
In view of this, your £1,000,000.00(One million Great British pound sterling) would be released to you physically by our affiliate Bank.
Our agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds to you as soon as you make contact with him.
All participants were selected randomly from 'World Wide Web' site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000 companies.
This promotion takes place annually.
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
To file for your claim please contact our fiduciary agent with the below details for processing of your claims.
Mr.Anthony Jones
Tell: 0044 701 112 1121
Email: web.faflc@yahoo.com.hk
Note that all claims process and clearance procedures must be duly completed early to avoid impersonation arising to the issue of double claim.
To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with us or our designated agent.
All winning must be claimed not later than 14 working days from this notification, after this time all unclaimed funds will be return to European Union Treasury as unclaimed.
Be advice to keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money remitted to you.
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.
Yours faithfully,
Mrs. Mary Colton
(Lottery Coordinator)
_______________________________________________________________________
The Free Lotto Awards is proudly sponsored by the Microsoft Corporation, the Intel Group, Toshiba, Dell Computers, Mackintosh and a conglomeration of other international IT companies. The free lotto internet draw is held quarterly every year and is so organized to encourage the use of the internet and computers worldwide. We are proud to say that over £200 Million Pounds are won annually in more than 150 countries worldwide. Millions are won on a daily basis on one of the world's most famous free lotto service.

Names of Scam / Fake / Fraud Lottery

***

1. Lottery Scams

A lottery scam is an attempt to fraudulently extract money from someone by pretending to be a legitimate lottery company or winning player. It has sadly become a too common method of deception as such scams prey on people’s desire to win money and the popularity of big lottery games. Find out how to identify the most common types of scam and how to avoid them.

How to Spot a Lottery Scam

If you have received any suspicious correspondence, work through this checklist to see if you are getting scammed.

1. Did you enter that lottery on that date?

The golden rule for spotting a scam. If you did not play, either by buying a ticket or playing online, you cannot win.

2. Are you being asked for payment?

You will never be asked to pay a handling fee or any sort of charge by a legitimate company in order for your winnings to be released. An official company would pay your winnings in full and the only cost to you may be tax in the future.

3. Is the prize referenced realistic?

Look carefully at the prize, currency and lottery name to see if it makes sense and is consistent. For example, if you live in Canada and receive an email from a UK lottery telling you that you have won 10 million Indian rupees - that is a sign that this isn’t real.

4. Are you pressured to respond?

Is Lottery Legit

Lottery prizes do have expiry dates, but in most cases players will usually have several months or sometimes even a year or more from the day of the draw to come forward. A legitimate company would link to their terms and conditions if they made reference to any time constraints on claiming a prize.

5. Are you being told to keep the news confidential?

This is a trick used to scare people. There is no reason why you can’t tell family or friends straight away about a genuine win. The scammers are just trying to limit the chances of their fraud being exposed so that they will not be reported to the police or to the genuine company they are pretending to be from.

6. Is the message professional?

Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated with the design and content of their scams, but you should still note how professional it looks. First, check to see if the lottery organisation actually exists. ‘Euro Mega Millions Corporation’ might sound plausible to both EuroMillions and Mega Millions players, but it’s actually completely fictitious. If the message is riddled with spelling mistakes and poor grammar, this is further warning it is probably a scam.

7. Do they know your name?

If you play online you could receive a genuine automated winner notification without your name, but look out for a message starting ‘Dear winner’ or ‘Dear account holder’, as it is a sign of a possible scam.

8. What does the email address look like?

Is Lottery Co Uk Legitimate Site

Take a good look at the email address. Does it look like a genuine company’s email handle. A legitimate lottery will never send out a message from a personal Gmail or Hotmail account.

Types of Scam

The most common type of scam informs you that you have won a lottery. You may then be told that you have to pay a handling fee of some kind before receiving your money, or that there has been a mistake and you have been overpaid and must return some of your winnings. Even if the scammer does not ask you for money straight away, they may just try to open the lines of communication so they can gain access to personal or financial information further down the line.

A variation on this theme is a scam where you are told that your email or phone number has been randomly selected as a winner, perhaps in a ‘second chance’ draw.

Another type of scam involves the fraudster pretending to be a lottery winner who wants to share their money with others. The name on the message may be the same as a real winner, claiming to have set up some sort of trust. While some winners are very charitable, they would not randomly contact strangers to give a part of their prize away.

Scammers may also try to convince people that they have reduced lottery tickets for sale, declaring that it is a great opportunity to play for a fraction of the actual cost. This is usually done over the phone in an attempt to find out bank card details.

Communication Methods

• Email - Scam emails are becoming increasingly common, as they allow fraudsters to contact lots of people at the touch of a button for little or even no financial cost. The approach taken in an email scam closely mirrors that of a postal scam, with recipients directed how to respond.
• Letter – You may receive something through the post saying that you have won a prize and need to register your claim before you can receive the money. Postal scams target hundreds or even thousands of people simultaneously and are usually designed to look as authentic as possible, complete with various official-looking logos. You may be asked to call a telephone number to make your claim, or return a ‘claim form’ to a response address provided.
• Phone – If you receive a call saying you have won a prize, it is possible that the scammer will be very good at sounding professional and knowledgeable enough to make you feel confident that the news is genuine. You may be asked to provide personal information such as name, address, date of birth and so on, as well as financial information such as a credit/debit card or bank account number. The usual explanation is that you need to pay a handling charge, your card can be used as proof of identity so that the prize can be processed, or so that the prize can be deposited directly into your account. This is, of course, a lie.
• Text – You may receive a text message stating that you are the winner of a cash prize draw, mobile raffle, mobile lottery game or similar, and that your number has been chosen to win a cash prize. However, if you call the number provided you can expect hefty call fees, plus you may even get your phone hacked if you do respond. If you reply in any way, you are enabling the scammers to access the information on your phone, SIM card or even data from websites you have visited.
• Social Media – Scammers can now send messages through social media platforms, perhaps telling you that your profile has been chosen at random to win a ‘Facebook Raffle’ or ‘Facebook Lottery’. However, there is no such game organised by Facebook and never has been.

Golden Rules to Avoiding Lottery Scams

Follow these three key guidelines to help ensure you don’t get conned by a lottery scammer.

1 – Participation

First, remember that you cannot possibly win a lottery prize unless you have bought yourself a ticket for that game. Scammers will try and tell you that some lottery or other has randomly picked you to win or entered a number on your behalf, but it is not true. If you haven’t bought a ticket, you won’t win a lottery prize. Bearing this rule in mind will go a long way to making you immune to the scammers.

2 – Never send payment

A legitimate lottery will never ask for you to make a payment before your winnings can be processed. Do not give a scammer any personal or financial information, and do not respond to any suspicious correspondence or open any link in a suspicious email. If you have already responded, then break off contact straight away. If you have provided personal details, alert your bank immediately. You should also report any scam you received to the relevant authorities.

3 - Claim direct

Should you receive a telephone call, postal or email communication which you really believe is genuine – and you remember buying yourself a ticket for the game in question – don’t simply go along with whatever is requested of you. Instead, dig out your ticket (if you purchased it offline), take a look at the small print on the reverse of that ticket and follow the official claims process as described. And of course, if you purchased your ticket online you should log into your account for the official claims process of your lottery vendor.