Be warned: Police department issues scam alert warning for Mississippi Lottery

Law enforcement officials are warning citizens in Mississippi of a lottery scam currently targeting citizens in the area of Laurel.

The Laurel Police Department announced they have received multiple reports of a lottery scam being attempted. For this scam, Laurel Police Department Chief Tommy Cox said scammers are contacting citizens and telling them they won money in the lottery. However, to claim their winnings, they have to send money in the ways described in the phone scam.

Cox said they are trying to “prevent citizens falling prey to the scam as it appears that they are currently calling numbers in our area.”

Tips to avoid being a lottery scam victim

Unfortunately, lottery scams seem to happen way too frequently. The reason? They make it look so real. To help people avoid being victims of a lottery scam, the Mississippi Lottery has released some pointers:

• For online games, like Powerball, the lottery only knows certain information: where the winning ticket was sold and what the winning numbers were. To claim a prize, the winner must present their ticket and confirm to lottery officials the numbers on the ticket. If the winner doesn’t step forward to claim their winnings, then no one wins the prize.
• By no means will the Mississippi Lottery contact the winner. They said they don’t even know who the winner even is until they step forward to claim their prize.
• If the lottery of another country contacts you, it’s a scam. Lotteries of foreign countries are illegal in the United States. There is not one legitimate foreign lottery that sells tickets in this country.
• The Mississippi Lottery will never ask a winner to pay taxes upfront. Any federal and state taxes owed from the winnings will be paid before the lottery releases the money to the winner.
• You must buy a ticket in order to win a lottery prize. If you’ve never purchased a ticket and you’ve been contacted by a “lottery” claiming you won a prize, then it is a scam.

Some more tips from Lottery USA

To piggyback off the tips shared by the Mississippi Lottery, we wanted to share some more tips from Lottery USA for lottery scams:

• Even if the person is claiming to be from the lottery division, you should never give out any personal information or send money.
• If the scam happens to be done in an email, be suspicious if the email contains misspellings or poor grammar. Also, if the text and logos are of poor quality or they use poor English, it is probably a scam.
• You should also be suspicious if they tell you to keep your win confidential. This is a big red flag. Most lotteries require winners to reveal their identity when they claim their prize. If they tell you to keep it confidential, you should immediately stop talking with the person.
• Just keep in mind — if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

To stay protected and informed against the most common lottery scams, check out the Lottery USA Scams page!

If you live in Mississippi and you think you’re a victim of fraud or attempted fraud by someone pretending to be from the Mississippi Lottery Corporation, you should report it to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Consumer Protection Division at (601) 359-4230 or toll-free at (800) 281-4418.

Stay safe, enjoy playing the Mississippi Lottery, and please remember to play responsibly.