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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%).
Spot lottery & prize scams the moment they land
SiftMail scores every email after delivery and labels the risky ones. Preview what it found, confirm, and archive in one pass. Free plan available, setup takes 30 seconds.