How To Stay Safe And Secure If You Win the Lottery

How To Stay Safe And Secure If You Win the Lottery

As Mega Millions lottery reaches $790M, Here's How To Stay Safe And Secure If You Win

Cortney Moore  Sun, July 24, 2022 at 3:33 PM·5 min read

The Mega Millions estimated jackpot has reached $790 million — the lottery board’s third-largest jackpot in its 20-year history.  The jackpot will likely surpass this amount by the next drawing on Tuesday evening, July 26.

As players pick their numbers in 45 states plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands — and dream about their chances of winning — few know how they’d protect themselves if they actually won.

Financial experts have resources available for lottery hopefuls.

MEGA MILLIONS LOTTERY JACKPOT IS NOW AN ASTOUNDING $790M FOR TUESDAY NIGHT'S DRAWING

Here’s what lottery boards, insurance companies and private wealth management advise lottery winners do to keep their personal life and funds safe and secure.

Lottery players need to look out for scams whether they’ve won or not.

Some scammers falsely identify themselves as lottery employees to steal money from unsuspecting people, Mega Millions warns.

"No representative of Mega Millions would ever call, text or e-mail anyone about winning a prize," the multi-jurisdictional lottery board’s website says.

Lottery scammers are "persistent," use real or made-up company names, and offer a "free play" or "prize" to try to look legitimate, warns Mega Millions.

Scammers can also ask for personal information or payments that they claim are for "taxes" or "fees."

Helpful tips that Mega Millions offers include being suspicious of any lottery winning from a game that’s never been played, as well as being suspicious of emails that come in with "misspellings or poor grammar."

The lottery board also warns that people should be suspicious if a contact asks to keep correspondence confidential or asks for banking information.

"No real lottery tells winners to put up their own money in order to collect a prize they have already won," Mega Millions notes.

Lottery winners should put together a team of financial experts if they’ve won a large prize, Mega Millions says.

The lottery board recommends that winners look into resources, financial planning tools and personal specialists from the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, a national professional organization that has more than 428,000 CPAs affiliated with it.  Lawyers and financial advisers could also be worth consideration, according to State Farm Insurance.

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