Can I Buy UK Lottery Tickets Safely

Most of us will have seen them before, the scam emails that are supposedly from one or other of the lottery operators that are located all over the world. These messages claim that we have won a lot of money. Usually they mimic the details, logo and name of a legitimate lottery operator, like those who sell UK lottery tickets to buyers in foreign countries. Actually most of these senders are not linked in any way to the legal operators of lotteries. Mostly these mails come from people who operate a scam also known as advance fee fraud. Their aim is not to pay you winnings, even though that’s what they claim, but rather to get money from you.

So how does one avoid falling victim to these ruthless crooks and make sure that a notification of winnings is legitimate? There are a few ways to recognize a lottery scam and reduce your risk of being conned out of your hard earned money.

The first thing to remember is that you can’t win a competition that you didn’t enter. Obvious as this sounds people still get tricked like this. If you have never bought a ticket to a foreign lottery and you suddenly get an email stating you have won a large amount of money be immediately suspicious.

Another hallmark of lottery scams is the air of secrecy. Many of them ask you too keep your winnings a secret because of a mix up. They also use terms like email draws or claim the winnings are from draws where no tickets are sold. No legitimate lottery operates like this.

In the email you will usually be requested to make contact with a claims agent. In the case of a genuine lottery a staff member will make direct touch with you not a third party. If you should contact this agent they will ask you to make a payment to them to cover, processing fees, courier charges or some other bogus reason.

Any money sent to these people is unlikely to ever be seen again. Most likely once they have your money you will also never hear from the claim agent again either. In most countries it is illegal anyway for a lottery operator to ask for an upfront payment from a winner. If there are any genuine charges they would simply be taken from the winnings before they are paid out.

Another clue is the type of language used. Terms like Lottery Sweep Stake or Winning Notification are typically not used by legitimate operators, whether official lottery companies or for example other businesses like those that sell UK lottery tickets to non-UK residents.