Real or Scam? What New Yorkers Should Know About Emails from NYS Lottery

A woman is 3 million dollars richer today thanks to an email from the Michigan lottery that she almost never opened after it was moved to her "Spam" folder.  What if this happened here and you were sitting on some unclaimed money from the New York Lottery.  Would they contact you?

According to the Daily Mail, 55-year-old Laura Spears from Michigan played the lottery on New Year's Eve, but never checked her tickets to see if she was a winner.  She saw a congratulatory email from the Michigan Lottery, but her server sent it to Spam.

Thinking that it might be a scam, she didn't want to click on it.

Instead, she went to the Michigan Lottery website to check the numbers, and it turns out, it was no joke - Spears is a millionaire.

What if this happened in New York?  Would the NY Lottery send you an email saying you've won as Michigan does?

The short answer is, no.  They will NOT send you an email.

In fact, on the New York Lottery website, they warn people about the risks of opening something suspicious, and this is their stance on contacting winners:

The New York State Gaming Commission (“Gaming Commission”), operator of the New York Lottery, does not contact winners to tell them they have won.

Any message informing you that you’ve won a prize through the New York Lottery is a fraudulent claim, whether you’ve received this news via phone, email, mail, or text message. There is no such prize. Never respond to these messages, do not send money, and never, ever provide your financial or personal identifying information to a scammer.

The New York State Lottery reminds people that if they feel they may be part of a scam, to contact the Federal Trade Commission at 1-877-FTC-HELP or at the FTC Consumer Information website.