It might seem sad, but to protect yourself on the internet you must start to be skeptical with everything you see. If it might be too good to be true, it probably is! Many of the victims of these schemes hadn’t thought to ask themselves the important question: if it really is true, how can I make doubly sure?

1. Did you even enter that lotto?
You can’t win a lotto you never entered.
2. Did they use your full name?
If it’s addressed to Dear Winner, the odds are they have no idea who you are.
3. Is it even a real lotto?
Never heard of the Australian State Lottery? Neither have I.  A quick check of the yellow pages online reveals it doesn’t exist.
4. Have they included a telephone number to contact them?
I am yet to see a scam lotto email that included this.
5. Do they ask for your bank details, or ask you to send them money to make your claim?
Run. Run a mile. This is the way most scams bleed their victims dry.
6. Who is the mail from?
Lotto companies do NOT use email addresses from Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail or any other free email service.
7. No, who is the mail really from?
Your email program will have a way to show either the mail’s sending details or the email header. What looked like it came from a legitimate address is actually from some free email address? Toss it out immediately.
8. If you get to point number 8 and they pass all the tests so far…
Ignore any contact information in the email, and use the yellow pages or your local directory book to find their contact information. Call them directly and ask. Tell them you received an email and want to know if it’s real. Most lotteries don’t send emails in the first place, and would have advised you by post or telephone. They’ll tell you if they really sent it.
9. Bonus tip: Never reply to a scam email at all. Don’t even reply to tell them to get lost. As soon as you do this, they know your email address is active and they’ll sell it to another spammer. Just delete the mail and move along.

Writing Style Warning Signs:

If you weren’t sure whether there was such a thing as a national or international lottery done by email, you can still find many other clues that you have a lottery scam spam. They are usually written with almost no regard for English spelling, grammar or punctuation. THEY WILL EVEN USE ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS. Only idiots and scammers write entire emails in capital letters.

Biggest Warning Sign Of All:

The biggest warning sign is that there will be a link in the email for you to click on and confirm that you have read the email and are eagerly awaiting your winnings for the nonexistent lottery.

Here the scam works in different ways. One way is to bring you to a site that might mirror your state or a country’s national lottery. The copycat site will then ask for some information so they know where to send the money to.

This information would include your bank account or credit card number. Once they have that, you no longer will have any money in your bank account and your credit card statement will go through the roof.

Another way that the lottery scam works is that you are sent to a site that does not ask for these personal questions, but does ask for your name and address, in order to send you a check. While you are on that site, a door is open for malware (malicious software) to enter into your computer. This gives the sender of the malware access to your files, your personal data or exactly what you see on your computer screen. They could even use your computer just to gain access to your email address book so they can find more places to send the scam spam to.

What To Do:

If you get a lottery email scam, delete it without clicking on any links that may be included in the email. Afterwards, immediately delete the “delete” file in your email program. Some malware has been known to activate even though you haven’t clicked on any links in the email. Just getting it at all can infect you if you keep the email long enough.

You can also avoid spam lottery fraud with the use of a spam filer for your email program and the latest version of a computer security package, which includes a firewall, an anti-virus program and an anti-spyware program.