Beware of Lottery Scams!

While it would be wonderful to get a message saying that you won the lottery, you need to prevent yourself from falling victim to a lottery scam. Scammers and con artists may try to trick you into thinking you won and they do this in order to get your personal information and to steal your money.

On this page we provide you with basic information to help you stay clear of lottery scams as well as an explanation how your online lottery play at TheLotter NJ is safe and secure.

If you didn’t play, you can’t win!

If you didn’t buy a ticket or participate in a lottery draw, there’s no chance that you’ve won. Any message sounding too good to be true or suggesting that “you have been randomly selected” is a fraudulent claim.

Warning signs of a lottery scam

If you are contacted out of the blue by someone you don’t know—by email, phone, or text—with a notification that you’ve won the lottery, be suspicious. Many scammers falsely identify themselves as being affiliated with state or national lotteries. No official lottery would ever call, text, or email anyone about winning a prize. It is important to remember that there is no way a lottery could know that you, or any other individual, has purchased a ticket and won a prize in its draw.

Scammers’ mails may seem to be coming from a genuine email address and they may even use real organizations’ logos. Misspellings and grammatical errors are also signs of fake lottery win notifications. Do not respond to these mails.

There is no chance that a real organization would contact you in this manner. Never click on links in unsolicited emails and delete any mails that raise your suspicions. Do not make a phone call to verify a lottery win because it’s likely you will be calling someone who is part of the lottery scam.

How to protect yourself

There is no need to disclose personal or financial information to claim a lottery prize so don’t provide your details to anyone who contacts you unexpectedly. Never give out your Social Security numbers or credit card numbers to anyone promising lottery prizes. If someone offers to wire your ‘winnings’ directly into your bank account, do not give them your bank account information.

Scammers may offer to collect a prize for you for a fee; or guarantee that you will win a prize; or they may ask you to assist them in redeeming a ‘winning ticket’ and ask you for a ‘deposit’ and then disappear with your money. There is no ‘processing fee’ for claiming prizes when you win and any check you receive accompanied by a request for processing or claiming fees is fraudulent and will bounce if you try to deposit it.

Beware of those who claim on social media to be prior jackpot winners and invite you to share their prize money. Offers from strangers to share their winnings with you should be considered a scam.

Make sure to only purchase tickets through a lottery courier service if that service is properly licensed. There is a risk of being defrauded if purchasing tickets through a courier service not registered with the New Jersey Lottery.

TheLotter NJ is safe

Your private account at TheLotter NJ including the Social Security numbers and financial information you provided upon registration and deposit, is safe and secure.

When TheLotter NJ notifies you—by email or SMS—that you won a lottery prize, you can login to your account and verify the winning notification yourself. TheLotter NJ contacts you not as a representative of an official lottery organization, but rather as the ticket messenger service which purchased lottery tickets on your behalf. We charge a service fee for buying your tickets and you can choose how you wish to be contacted in case of a win by adjusting the notification settings in your account on the site.

We will transfer prize money from secondary winnings (prizes under $600) to your online lottery account as soon as we receive it from the official lottery operator. When you win larger prizes of more than $600, we will arrange for you to receive your winning ticket so that you can claim your prize at your state’s lottery offices yourself.

We will never charge you a fee or take a commission on your lottery prize.

For more information

The Federal Trade Commission has more information on fake lotteries and other scams at http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0086-international-lottery-scams. You can also call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

More information on Player Protection: https://naspl.org/player-protection/

If you are a victim of a lottery scam

Report any attempted scam to the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP or at the FTC Consumer Information website. If you have been the victim of a scam, contact your local police or sheriff’s office or state police as soon as possible.

Also, contact the New Jersey Lottery's Security Unit immediately at (609) 599-6100. Please submit the 'scam' material you have received, along with as many details as possible (i.e. instructions, your contact information, etc.). You can forward this information to the Security Unit by email (publicinfo@lottery.state.nj.us), by fax (609) 599-5814, ATTN: Security Unit, or via regular mail to New Jersey Lottery; Security Unit; P.O. Box 041; Trenton, NJ 08625-0041.

Customer complaints

If you have a complaint about a New Jersey courier service company, please call the New Jersey Lottery's Customer Service department at 1-800-222-0996.