Fake UK National Lottery Notification Emails - Are You Being Scammed?

Scams Involving the British National Lottery

How to Recognize Them and What To Do If You Receive One

There are only two legal large* lotteries in Britain, the National Lottery and the Monday Lottery (an online lottery), and neither uses email to notify winners. See sample emails (links at left or further down this page) for examples of scam UK lottery emails.

All lotteries, including foreign lotteries operating in Great Britain, are unlawful in the UK (except those provided for by the 1976 Lotteries and Amusements Act; meaning  the government run National Lottery). Note: in the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams. Some of these lottery schemes say that the Gaming Board for Great Britain has approved them, but this is not true. The Gaming Board has a list of these companies and lotteries on its website, and warns people not to take part in them.

If you have not purchased a ticket for the UK National Lottery, you cannot have won a prize, and you should treat the email with absolute caution.

The following points are some things to look for in order to identify a fraudulent UK National Lottery winning notification email:

  • The UK National Lottery does NOT tell players how much they've won in an email; and
  • The UK National Lottery does NOT ask for any Player information like name, address or bank details on an email.
  • If the email says 'Winning Notification' or 'Lottery Sweep Stake' in the text, the email you've received is definitely not from UK National Lottery;

When the real UK National Lottery sends an email to your for OTHER reasons (never a winning notification) they use only the following email addresses:

  • admin@nationallottery.co.uk
  • player@nationallottery.co.uk
  • play@nationallottery.co.uk
  • help@nationallottery.co.uk
  • play@play.nationallottery.co.uk

They use only these addresses to send communication such as purchase confirmations and rollover alerts. Again, the real UK National Lottery would NEVER use a Yahoo, Hotmail, AIM, AOL or other email address to either send or receive email!

* Very small charity-based lotteries are legal with a number of restrictions, for legitimate charities. See the legal guidance for small lotteries and the UK government paper Lotteries and the Law. None of these would send you an email!

THE PITCH

They offer you something for nothing ' such as:

  • you've won a prize in a draw or a lottery (even though you haven't entered one)
  • an exclusive entry to a scheme that's a surefire way to make money
  • a way to earn easy money by helping them get untold millions out of their country
  • the chance to join an investment scheme that will make you huge amounts of money; and so on.

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?

THE STING

They'll ask you to:

  • send money up front − an administration fee or tax, the list is endless but its always a ruse to get you to give them money
  • give them your bank details or other personal details
  • ring a premium rate number (all UK premium rate numbers start with 090)
  • buy something to get your prize.

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.

Other things to look out for

  • they ask you to send money
  • they give you a PO box number as their address
  • they ask you not to tell anyone about the deal.

In the UK, call the hotline at 020 7211 8111 to check or report lottery scams.


Samples of Fraud Email "Winner Notification" Emails

CFR has plenty of examples of actual fraudulent emails sent out. You can probably find the one you received in the list below!

  1. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY 2010, Anna Martin, Online Coordinator, Mr.James Brown
  2. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY, online Sweepstakes International program, "James Smith", "smithjames055@gmail.com"
  3. British National Lottery, "Sir. Latoya Nicole", "Mrs Shannon Maris"
  4. UK National Lottery, "Dr.Harry Raymond(Esq) ", "Paul Ferdinad"
  5. The National Lottery, Richard Reichlin, Hilary Scott
  6. UK National Lottery, "Barr. Owen Green", "ukclaimsdepartment008@live.com"
  7. British Lottery, "Rev. Norlan Davies", "Mr. Aston Smith"
  8. The National Lottery, "Sir Howard Coxx", "Mr.Watford Blair"
  9. Game lot Group UK, organizers of The National Games Inc, "Mrs.Christine Marthins", "Rev Danny White"
  10. UK National Lottery, "John A Edward", "john.edward123@yahoo.co.uk"
  11. National Lottery, Euro Lottery Intern. Award Promotion Notification, "Mrs. Lisa Olive", "Mr.David Marsha"
  12. UK NATIONAL LOTTRY FOUNDATION - "Mr Darren Lloyds", "darrenlloyds_uknl08@hotmail.com"
  13. YOU HAVE WON THE BRITISH LOTTERY" - "Lotto manager", "MR. STEVE OWEN"
  14. Barrister Louis Cox Esq, Dispatch Agents Mr. Gary Smith Jnr. and Mr Williams Diver at FRONTIER FORWARDING SERVICES L.T.D .
  15. WINNING NOTIFICATION FOR CATEGORY "B" WINNER ONLY
    "Mrs. Margaret Johnson", "Mr. Phil Smith"
  16. 4th International online awareness Sweepstakes Program - MRS ELIZABETH  MCPHERSON, Dr. Martin C. Flemings
  17. British International Lottery and Sweepstake - Lawrence Artkinson
  18. BRITISH INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY - Woolmich Bank - "Mr. Mike Johnson", "MICHEAL SMITH"
  19. British Lottery International, Mrs. Victoria johnson, Liverpool
  20. BRITISH LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL - "Mr. Anthony Campbell", "Mr Powell Paul"
  21. British Lottery International programs, Mr. Aderson Lord  and Richard Moore, "fiduciary agent"
  22. The British National Lottery - "Mrs. Stella Ellis", "Mr. Maxwell Smith", a complete example with replies from the scammers
  23. BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY - "Brian Kuppet", "MR DAVID GIBSON"
  24. BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY International Lottery Programs

  25. British National Online Lottery Programme - "BRITISH NATIONAL LOTTERY ONLINE", "Dr. Fitzgerald Blair"

  26. Camelot National Lottery - "MrsDianne Thompson", "Mr Phil Smith"

  27. The British National Lottery - This  is  to congratulate you and your family for this lucky winning,
  28. MR.DOLPHIN WALKER, Claims Department, The UKNL Foundation, Email: ukclaimingagencydept@yahoo.co.uk
  29. Elot Financial Reconciliation Inc.,Contact person: MR. LOPEZ ADAMS. and CHARLES LOUIS McClean (Mr.),
  30. The Lottery Company, Harrogate, MR GARRY MURPHY , Debbi King
  31. The Lottery Company or BRITISH LOTTERY or UNITED KINGDOM LOTTERY - "Mrs Lisa Brown", "Mr.Oliver Campbel"
  32. FROM THE DESK OF MR JONES MAYOR. AUDITING AND ACCOUNTING MANAGER, PAN-BANK BENIN REPUBLIC
  33. Frontier Forwarding Service Ltd, Mrs. Anna Walter
  34. The National Lottery, Mr John Richards, Ms.Candy Mason, and SIR GEORGE HARRIS
  35. The National Lottery, Mr. Steven Burtler and Mr. Christopher Thomas
  36. The National Lottery, Peter Tailor, Kelvin Bode
  37. The NATIONAL LOTTERY - "SIR GEORGE HARRY" and "James Keegan"
  38. The National Lottery - "Tracy Kelly", "Martin Cole"
  39. The National Lottery and TNT COURIER SERVICE - "Peter Taylor", "MR TERRY HOPKINS"
  40. NATIONAL LOTTERY.COM - "Mrs.Teresa Allan" and "Mr.Alexander Davis"
  41. National Lottery Headquarters - "Mrs. Gina Cruz", "Mr. Randy Fox"
  42. Overseas Claims Unit, United Kingdom Lottery Fiduciary, Mr. Scott Bedury,

  43. OXFORD REGIONAL CLAIMS OFFICE - "Mr. Davis Kelley", "your appointed fiduciary agent"
  44. Mr. Simon Perchard, Finance Director, Link Finance and Trust Ltd.

  45. UK-GAMING Headquarters, Graham Lewis, RYAN BOND

  46. U.K LOTTERY TEAM, SIR WILCOX DUTCH, DR. WILLIAMS JONES.
  47. UK International Lotto, Mr. Carl Gareth
  48. UK Lottery Board, Mr. Ian Louis, Overseas Subscribers Agent, Mr. Carl A Houghton
  49. UK LOTTERY INTERNATIONAL PROMOTION PROGRAM - Mrs.Tina Stone, Mr. Brad Naysmith and Mr Smith Sand, "fudiciary agent"
  50. UK Lotto - Financial Securities Co.
  51. UK International Lottery - Frontier Forwarding Services Limited
    "Mr.Peter Liu", "Wendy Hawker or ASHE .K. AWOMI"
  52. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY BOARD - Claims Department - "Mr. Henry Smith", "Sir Christopher Barrett"
  53. UK National Lottery; Dear Lucky Winner, BONUS LOTTERY PROMOTION PRIZE AWARDS WINNING NOTIFICATION
  54. UK National Lottery online Sweepstakes International program, "Williams Page"
  55. UK Queen's Sweep Lotto, MRS Caroline Brooks.
  56. United Kingdom National Lottery- "Mrs Caroline Andrews", "Barrister Ashley Richard"
  57. British Lottery Headquarters of the British Lottery International programs - "Gill Watkins, Esq.", "Anthony Hawkins"
  58. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY - "Richard.K Lloyd" and "Mr. Brender William"
  59. UK National Lottery - "Paul White", "Austine Moore"
  60. UK National Lottery - "Lorraine Dodds", "Mr. Charles Edward"
  61. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS - "William Stevenson"
  62. UK NATIONAL LOTTERY HEADQUARTERS - BONUS LOTTERY PROMOTION PRIZE AWARDS WINNING NOTIFICATION
  63. United Kingdom National Lottery wishes to inform you that the results of the E-mail address ballot lottery international program by Great Britain - Mr Fred Martin - Mrs. Dianne Thompson
  64. UNITED KINGDOM NATIONAL LOTTERY - "Mrs. Rose Wood", "Michael Field"
  65. Verifications Dept. at the headquarters of The UK National Lottery - "Peter Green", "Desmond Smith"
  66. WINNING NOTICE FOR CATEGORY \\\"A\\\" WINNER - Mr Joe Martins - Mrs. Lewis Braxton
     

Other UK Lottery Scams

  1. Lottery International - Free Lottery On line Sweepstakes International Program - and or - The Free Lottery International

 


 

For a comprehensive list of national and international agencies to report scams, see this page.