Lottery and inheritance scams notify you of a lottery, sweepstakes, or prize you supposedly won — or an inheritance or estate you can claim — then extract fees (“taxes,” “processing,” “legal costs”) and personal data to “release” a windfall that does not exist.
It is the windfall-specific variant of advance-fee fraud: a large imaginary sum gated by a small real payment you must send first. The lottery form says you won a foreign lottery, a brand-name sweepstakes, or an online “lucky draw” — despite your never having entered. The inheritance form claims a distant relative or a wealthy stranger sharing your surname has died, leaving an unclaimed estate a “lawyer,” “bank officer,” or “executor” needs help releasing.
Both then invoke a barrier only money and information can remove — a “release tax,” a “transfer fee,” a “probate charge” — plus identity documents and bank details “to deposit the funds.” Paying one fee produces another; supplying data enables identity theft and marks you as responsive, inviting re-targeting on “sucker lists” traded among fraudsters. The distinctive detection handle: you didn’t enter, and you didn’t know the relative.