Have you won the Facebook lottery? Probably not.

The Facebook Lottery or Lotto. The Facebook Powerball. The International Facebook lottery. The Facebook Online Splash Lottery. No matter what name is takes, they all have one thing in common. None of these are real. And yes, that means you didn’t win any of them.

The “lottery scam” has long remained one of the most prolific types of “advance fee scams” on the Internet. Advance fee scams – also called Nigerian/419 scams – are scams that work by tricking a victim into sending money to a scammer on the promise that the victim will receive a much larger payout in return.

Essentially the scammer, while posing as a legitimate entity, promises the victim a large amount of money. When the victim responds, they are subsequently told to first pay a comparatively small fee. Of course, the large payout isn’t real, and any money paid out by the victim is stolen.

In the case of Facebook lottery scams, the victim is promised a large payout in the guise of a lottery win. Any victims that respond to the scam are subsequently instructed to pay various costs and fees before they receive their winnings. That money is then stolen from the victim.

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Facebook lottery scams can be initiated by the scammer through email, through a “Message Request” (an instant message that non-Facebook friends can send you) or through a Facebook instant message using a compromised account belonging to a Facebook friend.

See the example of a typical Facebook lottery scam below which attempts to bait a victim.

I am pleased to inform you of the result of the just concluded annual final draws held on the 6th of August 2013 by Facebook group in cash promotion to encourage the usage of Facebook worldwide, Your name was among the 20 lucky winners who won $650.000.00USD (Six hundred and Fifty Thousand United State dollars) each on the Facebook group promotion.
The online draws was conducted by a random selection of emails you were picked by an advanced automated random computer search from the Facebook in other to claim your $650.000.00USD the lottery program which is a new innovation by Facebook, is aimed at saying a big thank you to all our users for making Facebook their number one means to connect, communicate, relate and hook up with their families and friends over the years.
Your award is attached to Lucky Number (FB-225-7736), Ticket Number (FB-172-60), Batch Number (FB-0281/544) and Serial Number (99352748-2013)..Note them down now on a safe place and keep its very important
Send an email to Mr. Lincoln Howard through this email address now (onlinefacebookdept001@gmail.com) with the information about you below:
Full Name:Contact Address:Mobile Number:Occupation:Marital Status:Sex:Age:Country of Residence:Nationality:Your Email Address:

The crux of any advance fee “Nigerian” scam is the ability to gain the victim’s trust and make them believe that this promise of a large payout is genuine, and thus exploit that trust to lure them into paying smaller amounts of money in order to receive the much larger payout.

The criminals behind these lottery scams may claim the victim is required to pay “security deposits”, “transport costs” or even “conversion fees”. The specific excuses the cyber crook may use to lure the victim into forking out their money will vary from scam to scam, but the same applies with all schemes that purport you’ve won a lottery you never entered – they’re all scams.

So whether it’s an email, an instant message or any other type of communication on the Internet telling you you’ve won the lottery, don’t respond to it.