In Pennsylvania, they use the lottery and Mega Millions for phone fraud | The NY Journal

Officers of the Lottery in Pennsylvania alerted residents to a fraud scheme in which criminals ask victims for personal information to claim a bogus prize.

The authorities indicated that in the past few weeks, they have received multiple complaints from people who have received calls from strangers indicating that they are winners of a lottery prize, such as that of Mega millions. The scammers then ask you to pay taxes and other costs to claim the alleged prize.

The purpose of criminals is to steal personal and financial information from individuals.

“Unfortunately, these types of fraud are quite common – especially during times of crisis, like the pandemic, when people are most vulnerable,” Pennsylvania Lottery CEO Drew Svitko said in a press release.

“It is important to know that the Pennsylvania Lottery It will only contact players if they win in a “Second-Chance Drawing”, a drawing in which a player may have entered, or to collect their winning history. We never called or sent emails arbitrarily, “said the spokesperson.

Some signs of fraud using the lottery theme are as follows:

1. If someone instructs you to purchase a prepaid debit card to pay a processing fee or taxes upfront
2. If you are asked about personal financial information, such as the bank routing number
3. If they indicate that the prize is in pounds, euros, or any other currency that is not the dollar
4. If you receive an email with grammatical errors or spelling mistakes
5. If the caller says they are communicating from somewhere outside the United States
6. If the stranger tells you that you must keep the process to claim the prize secret
7. If instructed that you can verify the prize by calling a specific number