Is The Health Lottery a scam?
No, The Health Lottery is not a scam. The Health Lottery is 12 local society lotteries, each one representing several local authority areas across Great Britain. Each local society lottery takes turns at participating in the draw so that every area in England, Scotland and Wales gets an appropriate share of the monies raised.You can read more about the great things we help raise funds for on our Good Causes blog.
Now, with that out of the way, we can take a look at our five tips to help you avoid actual lottery scams…
1) Know how the lottery will contact you
When you play the lottery, make sure you look into how they’ll contact you if you’ve won a prize or if there’s an issue with your account. Learn what information they may ask you for, and what they’ll never ask you for. Always be wary of any communication that falls outside of those parameters, even if it seems very official or if the person contacting you is either very friendly or very aggressive. In fact, aggression is always a bad sign, anyone contacting you from any lottery should have a polite and professional attitude!
2) Know How to Claim Your Prize
You should know what to do if you win lottery prize money. You should never have to pay to claim your prize. You may have to call a number to contact the lottery, but that's it. There are no taxes on lottery winnings in Great Britain, and you never need to pay any sort of fee, nor do you need to make a bank transfer to confirm your bank details. Anyone who is asking you to pay in order to claim your prize is lying to you.
If you buy your lottery tickets from a shop, The Health Lottery will not contact you if you win. Instead, you need to check whether you have won with our lottery results checker and then get in touch to claim your prize.
If you play online, then winnings up to £2,000 will be paid straight into your account – so there’s no need to get in touch. For any jackpot larger than this, you will need to contact The Health Lottery’s support team on 0330 390 22 89 so they can verify you and begin to process your winnings (calls are charged at local rate plus your telephone provider’s access charge).
3) Never click a suspicious link
If you receive a message either saying you have won the lottery, or that there is a problem with your account, be wary of clicking on any of the links. They may redirect you to a phishing site that will steal your information, or bog you down with malware. Instead, if the message seems legitimate, head directly to the genuine online lottery site where you play and log in to your account that way. If there’s a prize or a known issue, the information will be there.
4) Always protect your password
You should have unique and strong passwords for all of the genuine online lottery sites where you play. You should never give these passwords out to someone who calls, texts, or emails you about the lottery. You should not share it with anyone in your life who you would not implicitly trust with your credit card or wallet.
5) Stick with genuine online lottery sites
When you’re looking for something new, it may be tempting to search for different sites to buy tickets or play lotto scratch cards. Just make sure you are always playing on genuine online lottery sites affiliated with well-known lotteries or game companies, such as The Health Lottery. If you find a new gambling site that looks fun, research it carefully before giving them any of your money, just to make sure they have a good reputation for integrity and security.
Avoiding lottery scams requires a good combination of common sense, research, and vigilance. However, if you’re careful, you can easily play the lottery online safely, and have fun doing so. We hope you’ve found this article helpful!
