Lottery Officials Fight Florida Scam

Floridians who’ve been told they've hit the jackpot should take a minute before cashing in online. Online scammers are targeting the state’s residents through a scheme in which potential victims are told, via e-mail, that they’ve won a prize from the Florida Lottery, reports FOX10tv.com.

The fraudulent message instructs “winners” to fill out a form embedded in the correspondence and return the information to the sender, whose e-mail address is disguised to look like a legitimate lottery organization address. The scam’s perpetrators are collecting information useful to identity thieves: Social Security numbers, birth dates and other data.

Florida Lottery officials advise the public that winners are never asked for their Social Security numbers, and lottery ticket buyers aren't contacted, as a matter of practice, unless they are playing a promotional game or have entered one of the agency’s “second-chance” drawings.

“Unfortunately, there are a number of scams out there using the Florida Lottery name as the lure to swindle people out of their savings or personal information, which can result in loss of income or identity theft, as we suspect to be the case with this most recent scam,” said Doug Pitts, Director of Security at the Florida Lottery.

To avoid becoming a victim of identity theft, the Florida Lottery advises players to only buy tickets from authorized retailers, never pay money to collect a prize, and withhold credit card numbers or personal information from anyone claiming to be a Florida Lottery representative over the telephone or by e-mail.

The agency also advises players to never accept collect telephone calls from anyone claiming to be a lottery official and never respond to any communication that guarantees a prize. The Florida Lottery does not guarantee prizes. For more information or to report a scam, contact the Florida Lottery’s Customer Service Division at (850) 487-7787 or its Security Division at (850) 487-7730.

Remember, you can’t get scammed if you don’t play the con artist’s game.