Fraud Alert [England and the UK.]

Fraud Alert - National Lottery

Operation Sterling is aware of a number of attempted frauds impersonating the National Lottery in order to obtain your money and personal details.

Emails

Method - You receive an unsolicited email from the National Lottery stating - for example - that you have won the jackpot or £6 million. The emails may have official looking logos in order authenticate it. However, these have been obtained and copied from the internet. You are asked to respond to the email or to a telephone number.

Advice - The National Lottery will only ever send players an email if the ticket was purchased online and it will never state that the ticket is a jackpot winner or state an amount won. You will be directed to log into your account at National Lottery.

If you have bought a ticket from a shop you can check the tickets online at National Lottery or go into any shop that has a National Lottery ticket machine and ask staff to check the ticket on the machine for you.

Telephone Calls

Method - You receive an unsolicited telephone call from the National Lottery saying that you are one of the winners of 100 UK Millionaires Draw or a jackpot winner. You are then asked for money or personal details so that the winnings can be paid to you.

Advice - The National Lottery will never contact a ticket holder by telephone. If you have bought a ticket online you will be sent an email to log into the national-lottery to check your account or if you’ve purchased your ticket from a shop go into any shop that has a National Lottery ticket machine and ask the staff to check the ticket on the machine for you.

If you have not purchased a ticket for the National Lottery either in a shop or online, then you are not a winner and you should not respond to any request claiming to be from them. If you have received either an unsolicited email or telephone call contact the National Lottery on the above website.

If you have responded to either a phone call or email and have given personal details or sent money, you can report it to your local police or "The Action Fraud" or by telephone 0300 123 2040.