NJ Residents Warned of Fraudulent Emails and Calls Promising Lottery Winnings

TRENTON – New Jersey Lottery Executive Director, Carole Hedinger, has issued a warning to the public informing them that the Lottery never requires the presentation of personal banking information or a processing fee to claim a prize. Cash prizes are awarded to players once an authentic, validated, winning New Jersey Lottery ticket is presented for claim. The only time a Lottery official may contact a player via email, phone or letter announcing a prize win would be if the player had actively entered into an authorized New Jersey Lottery second chance drawing promotion. Even still, the prizewinner would never be asked to provide any personal financial banking information or pay a fee to obtain the prize. “Lottery scams are nothing new,” Director Hedinger said. “People can be enticed into believing that they have won a prize by telephone callers, emails and letters misrepresenting the Lottery. The caller or email instructs the recipient to provide personal financial information or to wire a fee to a specific location in order to claim their winnings. These types of correspondences are scams,” said Hedinger. “We are working to alert residents to be on the look-out for such correspondence with these false claims. Personal banking information and processing fees are never requested by the Lottery, and prizes can never be claimed over the telephone.”
If in doubt after receiving any type of notification, residents are encouraged to call the Lottery Security Office at 609-599-6100 for verification.
The New Jersey Lottery provides some simple tips for players, retailers and the general public to protect themselves against scams. 
1. Never provide your credit card number, personal banking information, passwords, transfer funds or cash, money orders or checks to anyone promising lottery winnings.
2. Monitor the lottery’s website (www.njlottery.com) and retailer locations for the most current New Jersey Lottery promotions, winning numbers and instant tickets. 
3. If approached by someone promising you lottery winnings or offering a winning lottery ticket for cash, immediately call the New Jersey Lottery Security Office.
4. Only buy lottery tickets from one of the more than 7,200 authorized New Jersey Lottery retailers throughout the State. Follow this link on the NJ Lottery website to locate your closest retailer https://www.njlottery.com/en-us/retailer/findretailer.html
5. Never redeem a Lottery ticket for someone other than yourself.