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Florida Lottery Email Scam Alert

By Charisse Van Horn
Published on: 07:33 PST, Mar 31, 2016

The Florida Lottery alerted those within the state about a new scam alert, targeting those who play lottery games. The scam is conducted via email, and the Florida Lottery shared an example of the message that arrived in unsuspecting users’ inboxes through their official website, Facebook, and Twitter social media accounts. The email fictitiously notifies the public that they won a prize of $800,000, and that they need to reply in order to make their lottery claim. The scam is actually a form of phishing, and the scammers are using the mass email to try and obtain personal and financial information from the recipients.

The Florida Lottery released a press statement regarding the email scam, and pointed out they do not contact winners by email to obtain their information. You may read the details of the press release and lottery scam below.

“The Florida Lottery is warning citizens of a lottery scam in which scammers are sending emails to the public in an effort to obtain personal and financial information.

“The email includes the Florida Lottery logo and uses the Florida Lottery headquarters’ address as part of the letterhead. In further efforts to appear legitimate, the email references other companies, including: LinkedIn and Microsoft. The email states that the recipient has won a prize and should contact the listed ‘Contact Person’ to claim his or her prize. The email asks the individual to provide general information required to claim the prize. The email does not ask the individual to pay or provide financial information, but once he or she responds to the ‘Contact Person’, the scammers will then request financial information and/or that a tax or fee be paid to claim the prize.

“The Florida Lottery does not contact players to inform them that they have won a prize unless they have entered a promotional game or second chance drawing on the official Florida Lottery website or social media pages. Individuals who receive an email similar to the one attached should not respond to the email. For more information and to find other tips to protect yourself, please visit flalottery.com. To report a lottery scam, consumers should contact the Florida Lottery’s Division of Security at (850) 487-7730.”

Those who play the lottery and games such as Powerball and Mega Millions are encouraged to follow their local state lottery to receive pertinent information regarding the games, as well as to receive other notifications of scams and unscrupulous behavior.

Some of the people who commented on Facebook regarding the scam pointed out multiple errors that would have signaled to them that the message wasn’t legitimate. Still, there are many people who are unfamiliar with the Florida Lottery, and may have never played lottery games before. They might be swayed by the Florida Lottery logo, and not realize they are being targeted for a scam. Yet, the email is written with poor grammar, contains spelling mistakes, and is difficult to understand due to the many errors.

The Florida Lottery studios is the official location where Powerball drawings take place every Wednesday and Saturday at 11:00 p.m. ET. There have been multiple Powerball and Mega Millions winners that come from Florida, and in fact, one of the $1.58 billion Powerball winners from January 13 was a Florida couple, and the following Powerball jackpot win that took place on March 2 was also won in Florida. Due to the many lottery wins that take place in Florida, it is imperative that residents follow the Florida Lottery for updates, recent news and notifications of lottery email scams like the one above.

[Photo by Florida Lottery Association]

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