🎰
Lottery & Prize Scams
Medium SeverityPrize/lottery scams account for 15% of all spam email
Lottery and prize scams inform victims they've won a large sum of money, a prize, or a reward they never entered. To claim the "prize," victims must pay fees, provide banking details, or share personal information.
How it works
- Email announces you've won a lottery, sweepstakes, or inherited money
- To claim your "prize," you must pay processing fees, taxes, or shipping
- You're asked to provide banking details for the "deposit"
- Scammers collect fees and personal information, then disappear
Red flags to watch for
- You can't win a lottery you never entered
- Requests to pay fees to claim a prize (legitimate prizes never require payment)
- Emails from generic Gmail/Yahoo addresses claiming to be from organizations
- Extremely large sums of money offered for no reason
Real-world example
Subject: CONGRATULATIONS! You have won $2,500,000.00
From: international-lottery@win-claim.org
“Your email was selected in our annual draw. You have won TWO MILLION FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS. To claim, send a processing fee of $299 via wire transfer.”
How to protect yourself
- Delete immediately — you cannot win a lottery you didn't enter
- Never pay money to claim a prize
- SiftMail catches these with spam keyword detection
How SiftMail detects this
SiftMail flags lottery scams through spam subject patterns (+30%) including "winner", "congratulations", "claim your prize", combined with suspicious sender domain scoring (+25%).
Stop lottery & prize scams before they reach your inbox
SiftMail scores every incoming email and automatically quarantines threats. Free plan available, setup takes 30 seconds.