Lottery fraud is any act committed to defraud a lottery game. A perpetrator attempts to win a jackpot prize through fraudulent means. The aim is to defraud the organisation running the lottery of money, or in the case of a stolen lottery ticket, to defraud an individual of their legitimately won prize.
Several common techniques are used, including using a forged or altered lottery ticket to claim a prize, or presenting a genuine, stolen ticket to claim a prize through misrepresentation. There are also cases of insider fraud, where employees or agents involved in the lottery have exploited their position to fraudulently claim prizes for themselves, such as tampering with the lottery draw process itself. In many countries, players can present their lottery tickets in person at retail outlets to check for winning numbers at the point of sale; cases have emerged of retailers failing to inform customers of their winnings and then claiming the prizes for themselves.
An alternative form of lottery fraud, commonly known as a lottery scam, takes the form of informing an individual by email, letter or phone call that they have won a lottery prize. The victim is instructed to pay a fee to enable the non-existent winnings to be processed. This type is a form of advance-fee fraud and a common email scam.[1][2]
- ^ "How to identify and avoid hoax or fraudulent e-mail scams," Microsoft Archived January 18, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Schiller, Jon (2010). Financial Fraud. CreateSpace. p. 89. ISBN 9781450533430. Retrieved 1 November 2019.