Lottery scam

Not to be confused with Lottery fraud.

A lottery scam is a type of advance-fee fraud that begins with an unexpected message (sometimes including a fake check) stating that the victim has won a large sum of money in a lottery. The recipient of the message—the target of the scam—is usually told to keep the notice secret, "due to a mix-up in some of the names and numbers," and to contact a "claims agent." After contacting the agent, the target of the scam will be asked to pay "processing fees" or "transfer charges" so that the winnings can be distributed, but will never receive any lottery payment.

Many email lottery scams use the names of legitimate lottery organizations or other legitimate corporations/companies, but this does not mean the legitimate organizations are involved with the scams in any way.

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