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Spotting an Internet lottery scam is actually quite a simple task: they're all scams. No, seriously. Legal cash lotteries run in the United States are all run by the states - and the states do not permit sales of tickets on-line. All these lotteries require you to purchase tickets in person, almost always only with cash. Anything on the Internet that attempts to sell you any cash lottery ticket in America is not only a scam, its likely illegal.

The single most popular type of Internet lottery scam is the Nigerian 4-1-9 scam. They are called the 4-1-9 scam after the section of the penal code of Nigeria, where a large number of the scams originate. These are the e-mails that many people receive daily that claim that you have won a lottery, and all you need to do to collect your millions of dollars is to send along your bank account number. After you send your bank account number to them, they will require a few small advance payments in order to secure your winnings. They will continue to request payments until you stop sending them and no, they're not going to send your millions along any time soon.

Any e-mail that you receive indicating that you have won a large amount of money can simply be ignored. Here's a quick tip - you won't be the winner of any lottery that you did not enter.

In addition, beware of any e-mail lottery claim with an attachment. A common way to spread damaging viruses is through e-mail attachments. Sometimes these attachments will be connected to e-mails that suggest you are receiving lottery winnings, a lottery claim ticket, or a winning lottery ticket. In all cases, those are attempts to get you to open an e-mail that will damage your computer. Do not open any attachments that you receive in e-mail where you do not know the sender.

There are also Internet sites that will attempt to get you to purchase lottery tickets. Again, any on-line site that claims to sell tickets for a US lottery is a scam. Lotteries are legal in other countries, but if you live and reside in America, realize that any chance of recovering your winnings from those sites based in foreign countries is small - and you will have very little legal recourse should you attempt to make a claim against the lottery or the company selling the lottery tickets.

The best way to avoid a lottery scam is to simply avoid the lottery. The odds are strongly stacked against you winning, no matter what the advertising and marketing people will tell you. But if you must play the lottery, just play off line at your local gas station or convenience store - you'll be a lot safer.

Learn more about this author, Jeffrey Ober.
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