Internet Safety

Fake Emails and Websites

National Lottery would like to warn our players that fraudsters may target you with phishing emails from time to time. Some phishing emails may ask you to update your billing or profile information.

Phishing is the practice of sending bogus emails which appear to come from major companies, like ourselves, and usually carry links to fake replica websites. The aim of the scam is to tempt you into parting with personal information such as usernames, passwords and even bank account or credit card details under the pretence that you are dealing with us.

We will never send out an email asking you to provide any sensitive or personal information. We would never ask for your credit card details or bank details via email. If you are in any doubt please call us to make sure that the email you have received is authentic.

Your email address can be obtained from publicly available sources or through randomly generated lists. Therefore, if you receive a fake email that appears to be from The National Lottery, this does not mean that your email address, name, or any other information has been gathered from National Lottery’s systems.

 

How Do I Identify a Fake Email?

Fake emails will often:
 

  1. Appear to be from a legitimate source. While some emails are easy to identify as fraudulent, others may appear to be from a legitimate address and trusted online source, they may even use imagery associated with a reputable brand. However, you should not rely on the name or address in the "From" field, as this is easily altered.
     
  2. Ask you for personal information. Fake emails often contain an overly generic greeting and may claim that your information has expired, been corrupted or been lost, and that you must immediately resend it.
     
  3. Link to counterfeit websites. Fake emails may direct you to counterfeit websites carefully designed to look real, but which actually collect personal information for illegal use.
     
  4. Link to real websites. In addition to links to counterfeit websites, some fake emails also include links to legitimate websites. The fraudsters do this in an attempt to make a fake email appear real. We have seen this recently on some of the fake email purporting to be from National Lottery
    Tip: The address for our website will always start with https://www.lottery.ie If you see a completely different website address it is likely that it has not come from us.
     
  5. Contain fraudulent phone numbers. Fake emails often contain telephone numbers that are linked to the fraudsters. Never call a number featured on an email you suspect is fraudulent, and be sure to double-check any numbers you do call.
     
  6. Contain real phone numbers. Some of the telephone numbers listed in fake emails may be legitimate, connecting to actual companies. Just like with links, fraudsters include the real phone numbers in an effort to make the email appear legitimate.

If you receive any emails relating to The National Lottery which you feel may be fake, please email support@lottery.ie or call 01 889 1000.