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Texas Lottery Commission Warns of E-mail Requesting Personal Information

Texans are being alarmed by the Texas Lottery Commission of a new scam e-mail making rounds over the Internet and getting into their inboxes.

The text of the scam e-mail claims that through Mega Millions lottery, the recipient has won $520,000; however, in order to claim this prize, the winner is required to provide personal information.

The e-mail appears official as it includes official logo of Mega Millions which may have been lifted from the genuine lottery website, and hence recipients could be easily duped.

It is to be noted that Mega Millions winners are not chosen via e-mail addresses. And more importantly, UK is mentioned as the country of origin in the spam e-mail, but Mega Millions has none of its agent in the country. To win a Mega Millions prize, a person has to buy a ticket from a licensed lottery vendor. There are 12 Mega Millions states, and a person can purchase a ticket from any of these and then tally the winning numbers for the corresponding drawing by Mega Millions.

Bobby Heith, media relations director, Texas Lottery Commission, said that neither the Texas Lottery commission, nor the Mega Millions contact winners through e-mails to inform them about the prize, as it needs to have a ticket to win, reported myvictoriaonline.com on December 8, 2009.

Meanwhile, it's very important for users to defend themselves from e-mail scams. The crucial thing to remember is that in order to claim a lottery prize, a person shall never send money straightaway to the sender of such e-mails. Genuine lotteries never ask people to pay taxes or fees before claiming the prize money. If a person is suspicious about the e-mail being a scam, the best option is to warn family and friends so as to increase awareness and take appropriate step to bust such a scam. It was found in November 2009 that similar fake e-mails were targeting Virginians.

Lottery e-mail hoax are not just confined to the United States, it is an ongoing scam spread across the world. Recently, the British media received a warning from the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), according to which fake lottery scams conned hundreds of thousands of Brits.

Related article: Texan Spam Mailer Gets Shut Out

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