• Trapped emails inform a user that he has won a large sum of money in a EuroMillions draw.

  • This is a commonly used phishing attempt by email, SMS or even using Facebook.

  • Official lottery game sites regularly denounce this false good news and warn players.

Who doesn't dream, by buying a EuroMillions lottery ticket, of not being the lucky winner of the draw?

And how not to succumb to the illusion of believing yourself to be chosen by chance, if in addition, a letter arrives in your mailbox, accompanied by an attached document stamped with the EuroMillions logo and with the enticing title "Notification of gain ".

There follows an explanation of obtaining the gain, thanks to a so-called draw via the email address of the target person, attached to a ticket number which would contain the winning numbers.

Obviously, to benefit from it, the Internet user must complete a form, which will be sent to a "bailiff" who will then ask for confidential information, such as the credit card number in order to be able to pay the transfer costs and deposit the huge sum won.

FAKE OFF

In reality, this email is a recurring phishing attempt.

The goal is for the trapped person to provide their personal and especially banking information.

According to the official EuroMillions website, this game and other national or international lotteries never win prizes and jackpots by drawing lots – unless the person concerned has taken part in a special raffle.

In addition, for people who are used to playing games of chance online, the teams will never ask them to provide them with this confidential data, quite simply because they already have it.

But the methods of fraudsters can also vary and can be declined in different forms.

It can be direct mail.

In this case, a letter is sent by La Poste informing the recipient of his win and asking him to fill in his request in order to obtain it.

The possible victim can also be canvassed by telephone.

A "lottery official" tells him the good news and will ask him directly for payment for processing the transfer of the prize to his account.

Fraudsters do not hesitate to adapt to new technologies either and can also act on social networks, such as Facebook and prevent their bait via a direct message, communicating to them a link where to go to fill out the forms and benefit from it.

There's even a variant, called "The Facebook Lottery", claiming that the person's profile was chosen at random to win a prize.

No matter what form the announcement of this good news takes, the result is always the same, extracting personal and banking information for the purpose of fraud.

What to do to avoid getting scammed

Often the person to respond to has a general public email address (hotmail, Gmail, etc.) and if it is a bailiff, his address cannot be found in directories or on the Internet.

The email you received is not personalized.

In the example attached, it is just indicated "Winning notification" and many errors are punctuated by the announcement.

You should never reply to these emails, nor click on the links indicated in the text.

EuroMillions will never contact a player directly if they win a prize, as it is up to them to claim the prize and provide a winning ticket.

To go even further, and block scammers, in addition to classifying the email received in your spam, it is possible to report this phishing attempt on an official platform, "Signal Spam" or on cybermalveillance.gouv.fr, organization that fights cybercrime.

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  • FDJ Loto & EuroMillions

  • Cybercriminality

  • Phishing

  • Money

  • Personal data

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