Protect Yourself and Report the Latest Frauds, Scams, Spams, Fakes, Identify Theft Hacks and Hoaxes
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"Congratulations!
You may receive a certified check for CASH!
One Lump sum! Tax free! Your odds to WIN are 1-6."
"Hundreds win
every week using our secret system!
You can win as much as you want!"
Sound great? It's a fraud.
Scam operators - often based in the Netherlands, Canada and Nigeria- are using the telephone and direct mail to entice Irish (and other global) consumers to buy chances in high-stakes foreign lotteries from as far away as Australia and America.
Lotteries are a special target of the scammers. There is only one legal national lottery in Ireland, the Irish National Lottery . " The Irish Lottery " is a separate, private lottery, which is also the subject of many scams. See this page for more information about Irish Lottery scams and real examples of scam emails.
A scam is when people con you out of your cash. There are hundreds of types
of scams - fake lotteries and prize draws, incredible schemes to make money
quickly, fake investment plans, work from home schemes the list goes on and on.
Download UK leaflet How to recognise a scam
(pdf 411 kb)
Download
UK poster
(pdf 220 kb)
The people who run these scams are clever and sophisticated and they know how to persuade us to part with our cash.
Most scams have some things in common - check out this list and help yourself to be on guard against scammers
See these pages for actual scam emails received. All are very similar, so we've identified them by some of the names and locations they claim to be from:
How scam artists succeed - they will:
New scams from Ireland and overseas appear every day - so it's important to know how to spot them.
They offer you something for nothing - such as:
There are hundreds of examples but we can all protect ourselves by being skeptical. Is it likely that someone you don't know, who has contacted you out of the blue, will give you something for nothing?
They'll ask you to:
They will lie to you and give you what seem to be good reasons why you should do what they say. They will answer all your objections.
Don't send any money or give any personal details to anyone until you've checked them out and talked to a professional or family and friends.If they ask you to do any of these things they're trying to cover their tracks and get your money and it's likely to be a scam.
Use the links on the right to find out about some of the most common scams, and how to report any scams you come across.
Irish Lotto on your Desktop:
Download this application and get Lotto Draw Results straight to your desktop
Beneficiary Fund Fact Sheet:
National Lottery Funded Schemes - Where the Money Goes, Where to Apply (PDF size
124kb)
Irish Lottery Winners Advice Booklet:
Opportunities, advice and common mistakes to be aware of should you win the
Lottery (PDF size 485kb)
Guide from the legitimate Irish Lottery About How to
Play:
How to Play the Irish Lotto
How to Play Lotto Plus
How to Play Lotto 54321
How to Play TellyBingo
How to Play EuroMillions
Irish Lottery Rules:
General Rules
Lotto
Lotto Plus
Lotto 54321
TellyBingo
EuroMillions
Lottery Scams: Below is a list of many known lottery scams. Many
originate in London, but they may use any address. Similarly, they
change their names frequently. Recognize a scam not merely by it's
name and location, but simply by the practice described above. And
remember:
If it sounds too good to be true: IT IS!!!!
Click here for the huge list of the names of the currently identified lottery scams companies
***
All images and text � Copyright Benivia, LLC 2017 Disclaimer and Privacy Policy
Names used by scammers in the examples on this
page and others often belong to real people and businesses who often have no
knowledge of nor connection to the scammer's use of their name and
information. Sample scam emails and other documents presented on this
website are real copies of the scam to help potential victims recognize and
avoid it. You should presume that any names used and presented here in a
scam are either fictitious or used without their legitimate owner's
permission and have no relationship to any person or business that also
shares that name, address, phone number or other identifying information.
Permission is given to link to any public page on http://www.ConsumerFraudReporting.org