Do Powerball & Mega Millions contact lottery winners? How to identify, protect from scams

Lianna Norman, Palm Beach Post
·3 min read

Everyone would like to win big and become a lottery winner, especially when the Mega Millions jackpot has hit $560 million and the Powerball jackpot soared to a whopping $875 million.

So many high hopes to win big makes the lottery a perfect opportunity for scammers looking for vulnerable targets.

If you have an email in your inbox with the words “You won the lottery!” it’s safe to say you didn’t win the lottery.

Here’s a roundup of common types of Mega Millions and Powerball scams and how to avoid falling for them.

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How do Powerball and Mega Millions contact lottery winners?

According to the Mega Millions website, “No representative of Mega Millions would ever call, text, or e-mail anyone about winning a prize.”

The same goes for Powerball. Powerball will never contact you via email or social media to tell you that you’ve won, unless you specifically entered an official lottery promotion or contest. Legitimate lotteries don’t call collect, so never accept a collect telephone call from someone claiming to be a lottery official.

If you’ve picked the winning lottery numbers, you can claim your winnings in person at a Florida Lottery district office or by mail.

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What are the most popular types of lottery scams?

If anyone reaches out to you saying they’re a lottery official and sends you instructions to collect your winnings, it’s a scam. Here are some of the ways scammers might try to get you to collect "fake" winnings:

  • Phone calls

  • Mail

  • Emails

  • Social media

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Five tips to help you protect yourself from lottery scams

Here are five tips from Mega Millions on how lottery players and non-players can avoid scammers posing as lottery officials.

  1. If someone says you have won a lottery that you have never played, be suspicious. You can’t win a legitimate lottery if you didn’t buy a ticket.

  2. If you are in a jurisdiction that is outside the market area of the lottery or game mentioned as the source of the “prize,” then it’s a scam. Real lotteries don’t hold international sweepstakes, contests or awards for those who live outside their market area. Mega Millions is played only in the United States. If you’re outside the U.S. and someone tells you that you have won a big prize, it is a scam.

  3. If you are told that you need to keep your “win” confidential, be suspicious.

  4. If you are asked to pay any kind of fee to collect your winnings, you haven’t won. Authentic lottery officials don't tell winners to pay money to collect a prize they’ve won.

  5. If someone offers to wire winnings directly into your bank account, do not give them your bank account information. Real lottery winners must claim their prize through a lottery district office.

For more information on lottery scams, you can visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website.

Lianna Norman covers trending news in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at lnorman@pbpost.com. You can follow her reporting on social media @LiannaNorman on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Lottery scam tips: Powerball, Mega Millions don't call, email winners