Lottery win scams: why fake win messages ask for a fee first

A genuine lottery will not ask you to pay anything to receive a prize, and you cannot win a lottery you did not enter. If a message tells you that you have won, then asks for a "processing fee", "tax", "release payment" or "verification deposit", it is a scam, however official it looks. The only reliable check is your own ticket, compared against the official lottery operator's results, which you look up yourself.

This guide explains how these scams work, how to confirm a real win, and who to tell if money has already gone.

Can you win a lottery you never entered?

No. Real lotteries pay prizes only on tickets or entries that were actually bought or entered. Action Fraud's guidance (UK) puts it plainly: "If you haven't bought a ticket, you can't possibly have won." The UK Gambling Commission adds that it does not notify people of lottery or competition wins, so a message claiming to come from the Commission is itself a sign of fraud.

Scammers get round this with stories: you were "randomly selected from email addresses", your phone number "was drawn in an international promotion", or a "foreign lottery" entered you automatically. None of these is how a regulated lottery works. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission notes that playing a foreign lottery is against US law in the first place.

Why fake lottery messages always ask for money first

The scam is an advance-fee fraud. The prize never exists; the fee is the whole point. Typical requests:

• a "processing", "transfer" or "clearance" fee
• "taxes" that must be paid before release
• legal, banking or courier charges
• a "minimum deposit" to show you are genuine
• your bank details, passport number or card number "for the transfer"

The FTC says anyone asking you to pay taxes, shipping or processing fees to claim a prize is a scammer, and that scammers prefer payment by wire transfer, payment apps, cash, gift cards and cryptocurrency because these are hard to trace and hard to recover. The Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre describes the same pattern: an advance fee or purchase, often requested through a money service business or prepaid gift cards, and no winnings are ever received.

Once the first payment is made, a second request usually follows: an unexpected "anti-money-laundering certificate", an extra tax, a delivery charge. Each one is presented as the last.

The scripts and pressure tactics to recognise

Urgency. "Claim within 48 hours or the prize goes to the next winner." Real lotteries publish their claim deadlines on their own websites, and you look them up there, not in the message.

Secrecy. Action Fraud lists being told to keep the win secret and reply quickly as a sign of lottery fraud. Secrecy stops you asking someone who would recognise the scam.

Official decoration. Logos, reference numbers, "claim agents", seals and the names of real lottery brands such as Powerball, Mega Millions, EuroMillions or the National Lottery. These are free to copy.

Free email and messaging accounts. A "lottery board" writing from a webmail address, WhatsApp or Telegram.

Fake jackpot winners on social media. After a big draw, accounts appear using the real winner's name and photos, promising to "bless" followers with cash. In June 2019 the North Carolina Education Lottery, in a warning published on Powerball's site, described a fake winner offering a $4 million donation in return for a $500 "minimum deposit", and fake social media giveaways using winners' photos. Its executive director said that anyone who promises a donation or prize but wants money first is trying to trick you.

Real prize notice or scam: a quick comparison

How to check whether a lottery win is real

1. Find your ticket or online entry. No ticket, no win. Lottery syndicates are the one case where someone else may hold the ticket; our guide to lottery syndicates explains how genuine syndicate prizes are shared.
2. Check the numbers yourself on the official lottery website or app, typed in or opened from a bookmark, or at a licensed retailer. Do not use a link, phone number or "claim code" from the message.
3. Follow the operator's own claim process. Each official lottery publishes how, where and by when to claim. Our lottery hub links to the official games we cover, including the UK National Lottery Lotto and EuroMillions.
4. If you play online with an official lottery account, check for any prize by logging in to that account directly, from the official site or app, rather than through a link in the message.

On tax: the FTC is explicit that anyone asking you to pay "taxes" to claim a prize is a scammer. Where tax applies to a genuine prize, it is dealt with through the lottery's own claim process and your tax authority, never by sending money to someone who contacted you.

What this means in practice

A worked example with placeholder details. Player A receives a text: "Congratulations, your number won £850,000 in the international EuroMillions promotion. Reply within 24 hours. A £95 release fee applies."

• Player A has not bought a EuroMillions ticket. That alone settles it.
• The message adds urgency and a fee, both listed by Action Fraud and the FTC as signs of fraud.
• Player A does not reply, does not click, screenshots the message with the sender number visible, reports it, and deletes it.

If Player A had replied and paid the £95, the next step would be a call to the bank, not a second payment.

What to save as evidence

Before you delete or block anything, keep:

• screenshots of every message, including the sender's number, email address or profile name and URL
• links and website addresses you were sent (copy them as text; do not open them again)
• phone numbers that called you, with dates and times
• payment receipts, gift card numbers and photos of the cards, wire or transfer references, crypto wallet addresses and transaction IDs
• a short note in your own words of what happened and when

Our gambling complaint evidence checklist has a fuller list.

Who to notify

The official lottery operator. Use the contact details on its own website to tell it about scams using its name. It cannot refund money you paid a scammer, but reports help it warn others.

Your bank or payment provider, immediately, if you paid. Use the number on your card or the official app. The FTC's advice is that the sooner you act, the better.

Your national fraud reporting service (as of October 2026):

If you shared passwords or logged in through a link in the message, also follow the hacked account steps and change those passwords now. In the US, the FTC points people whose personal details were taken to IdentityTheft.gov.

What not to do afterwards

• Do not pay "one last fee". There is no prize at the end of it.
• Do not trust a "recovery" offer. People who lose money to one scam are often contacted again by someone claiming to be a lawyer, regulator or police unit who can get it back for a fee. Our guide on why gamblers are targeted again explains this second wave.
• Do not send ID documents to anyone who contacted you first. The Gambling Commission's guidance is not to share identity documents, contact details or bank details with anyone claiming you have won.
• Do not click links to "verify" your win. Fake claim pages work like the fake casino and sportsbook clone sites we describe elsewhere.
• Do not feel embarrassed into silence. These scams are professional and widespread. Reporting helps the next person.

The Gambling Commission notes that most of these frauds operate from outside the UK, which limits what police can do. That is why acting fast with your bank matters more than anything else. Hub of Luck cannot recover money paid to scammers; our complaints hub explains which disputes regulators and ADR bodies can and cannot take on.

Lottery play should cost only the price of the ticket. If you are buying more tickets to make up for money already lost, the safer gambling page lists free support.