Play Smart and watch out for Powerball scams

As the Powerball jackpot grows pass a half a billion dollars, watch out for those scammers.

Players spend this exciting time dreaming about how the jackpot could change their lives, while scammers take advantage of the excitement to try and steal your money.

Sometimes scammers will reach out through social media, email, and even text. Check out this new text scam reported to us where the scammer tried to lure a victim by telling them they had won a $250,000 Powerball prize.

What’s wrong with this message?

• The N.C. Education Lottery would never reach out to a player through text, or in a group message.We do not share a player’s personal information with other people.
• The message says the winners were “chosen”. Winning people aren’t chosen, numbers are.
• Typos and grammatical errors are a giveaway that this is a scam message.

Here are a few helpful tips to help you Play Smart, and prevent you from becoming a victim of a scam:

• Never give your credit card, social security, driver’s license, passport, or bank account numbers over the phone, in an email, or through a letter to anyone promising lottery cash prizes.
• Never pay anyone a fee to obtain your winnings. This includes “taxes”, “processing” and “handling” costs.
• Never respond to a letter, email, or phone call requesting you to send money or to cash a check with directions to send a portion of the money back.

If you believe you have been the victim of a scam or an attempted scam you can get assistance from the Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Section by calling 1-877-5-NOSCAM or by filing a consumer complaint here.

If you have any questions about the legitimacy of a lottery communication, please call our Security Hotline, available 24 hours a day, at 888-732-6235.

For more examples and tips on how to avoid scams, visit our Player Security page.