Congratulations! You have won! These words are more than enough
to grab someone’s attention. These have become the most popular way of scamming
and sometimes fall under the category of lottery scams. Unexpected
prize and lottery scams are executed by saying that you have won anextravagant
amount of money and you have to pay some sort of processing fee in order to
claim for the prize of a competition or lottery you never entered.
Tips to
prevent yourself from lottery cyber fraud?
- Never send money to someone you have never met
You should never believe a stranger while handling financial transactions. In cyber frauds like lottery scams, it often happens that the person is asked to send some
money as a processing fee and most of the people fall victim to these frauds as
they trust blindly and transfer the money to an unknown person. The prevention
tip states that if you have not met them in person, you should never transfer
money at any cost.
- Never share your personal details
Asking for
personal details is the basic thing for a cyber-fraud. If you have won the
lottery and they have contacted you then they are having some of your basic
information and you need not to share any personal information apart of it even
if you are asked for. Never share your bank details, PAN number, license or any
other personal detail like address or phone number. Basically, they do not even
need that all. If it is legitimate lottery company then they definitely will
not ask for this information.
- Avoid Lotteries outside your native country
Many
lottery scams offers high dollar winnings and the person becomes the victim,
unaware of the fact that playing a lottery over the phone or mail outside your
native country is against the law and is considered as an illegal activity
under federal laws
- Be Sensible
Lotteries
do have certain terms and conditions along with a procedure to withdraw money.
Even if you win, you never have to pay an advance. If there is a processing fee
applicable that has to be charged then they can deduct from the winning sum and
they do not have to take it in advance. Secondly, how can you win a lucky draw
or lottery in which you never participated or had any interest? You need to be
sensible and think from all the perspectives to avoid cyber fraud or lottery
scams.
- Verify as much as you can
If you
have won a lottery through their company then they must know you. Do not trust
blindly and verify the name and details individually. Do not be over greedy and
be sure to make a wise decision after verifying all the details properly. Check
for their terms and conditions, privacy policy and lottery rules before taking
any step otherwise there are chances that you may get trapped in cyber fraud.
Apart from
keeping these things in concern, you should never feel shy to talk to others.
Sometimes it happens that anyone else in your known may have got the same mail
or message. So, you should talk about it as much as you can so that you may
know the reality if anyone else has fallen a victim for this cyber fraud.
