Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams Targeting Seniors: How to Tell Real from Fake

Your mom calls you excited — she just got a letter saying she won $50,000 from a national sweepstakes. Or maybe a phone call from someone claiming she's been selected as a lottery finalist. The letter looks official. There's a check attached. There's a barcode. It feels real.

It almost certainly isn't.

Sweepstakes and lottery fraud is one of the oldest scams in the book, and it remains devastatingly effective against older adults. The FTC consistently reports it among the top fraud types by loss amount for people over 60. Understanding exactly how these scams work — and what the genuine red flags look like — is the fastest way to protect your parent.

How Sweepstakes and Lottery Scams Actually Work

The scam follows a predictable structure, even if the surface details vary.

Step 1: The "Win" notification. Your parent receives a letter, phone call, email, or even a text message telling them they've won a prize. Common cover stories include a national sweepstakes (often mimicking well-known brands like Publishers Clearing House, BHG Daily Sweepstakes, or a "State Lottery"), a charity raffle, or a "customer loyalty" drawing.

Step 2: The fee demand. This is where every sweepstakes and lottery scam reveals itself. To "release" the prize, your parent is told they must first pay a fee. The framing varies: taxes, processing fees, insurance, customs duties, legal fees, or "bank transfer charges." The amount is usually small relative to the supposed prize — $200 to $2,000 — because scammers know people will pay a small amount to collect a large one.

Step 3: The fake check. Many sweepstakes scams include a counterfeit check. The letter instructs your parent to deposit the check, keep a portion for "taxes," and wire the rest back as their "fee." The check clears initially due to provisional bank credit — but bounces 5 to 10 days later, after the wired money is long gone. Your parent is now out the full amount they sent.

Step 4: The escalation. Once a victim pays once, they're on a list. Scammers will call back with new "complications" — additional taxes, another processing fee, a legal hold. The average victim pays multiple times before realizing the prize will never come.

The One Rule That Kills Every Sweepstakes Scam

Legitimate sweepstakes and lotteries never require you to pay money to receive a prize. Full stop.

If your parent has to pay anything at all — in any form, for any reason — to collect a prize, it is a scam. Real winnings are disbursed by the contest organizer. Real taxes on prizes are reported to the IRS and paid by the winner on their tax return — not wired to a stranger upfront.

This rule alone would prevent nearly every sweepstakes fraud ever committed. The challenge is getting your parent to believe it before they're emotionally invested in the win.

Red Flags on the Notice Itself

If your parent shows you a sweepstakes mailer or letter, look for these specific signs:

You have to pay anything. As stated above, this is the definitive tell. No legitimate prize requires an upfront payment.

Lottery winnings for a contest they never entered. You cannot win a lottery you did not enter. If your parent doesn't remember entering the contest, they didn't win it.

"Winning lottery barcode" or check enclosed. Scammers often include a fake check or a barcode that looks official. Real sweepstakes winners are notified by certified mail with follow-up from a legal department — not a detachable check.

Urgency and secrecy. "You must claim your prize within 48 hours." "Do not tell your bank or family members, as this could disqualify your claim." Urgency and secrecy are universal scam tools designed to prevent your parent from consulting anyone who might catch the fraud.

Request to pay via gift cards, wire transfer, or cryptocurrency. These payment methods are irreversible and untraceable. No legitimate company requires them.

Vague return address or overseas origin. Many sweepstakes mailers originate from Canada, Jamaica, or other countries. International lottery fraud is particularly common and almost always criminal.

The BHG Daily Sweepstakes and Brand Mimicry

Better Homes and Gardens runs a legitimate sweepstakes at bhg.com called "BHG Daily Sweepstakes." It is real, free to enter, and requires no purchase or payment to win.

Scammers exploit this brand recognition. They send mailers or make calls that mimic the BHG name, the Publishers Clearing House style, or the Readers Digest sweepstakes format — all of which have high recognition among older adults who grew up with these brands.

The actual BHG sweepstakes and Publishers Clearing House will never call you out of the blue to inform you of a win, will never ask for an upfront payment, and will never ask you to wire money or buy gift cards.

If your parent receives anything claiming to be from one of these brands, go directly to the brand's official website to verify. Do not call numbers printed on the mailer.

What to Do When Your Parent Believes They've Won

This is delicate territory. Your parent is excited and emotionally invested. Telling them bluntly "it's fake" often triggers defensiveness — they may feel you're undermining their judgment.

A better approach: "This is really exciting. Let's make sure we protect your prize. I've read that scammers try to intercept real winnings by pretending to be the company. Can we verify this directly on their website before we do anything else?" Then look it up together. In nearly every case, the "contest" won't appear on the company's official site at all.

If your parent has already sent money, treat it as a financial emergency. Contact their bank immediately to attempt a reversal on any wire transfers. File a complaint at reportfraud.ftc.gov and call the Elder Fraud Hotline at 1-833-FRAUD-11. Recovery is difficult, but speed improves the odds.

How to Set Up Ongoing Protection

The deeper problem with sweepstakes scams is that once your parent responds to one — even just by mailing in an entry card — they get added to "sucker lists" that are sold between criminal organizations. The volume of fraudulent mail, calls, and emails escalates dramatically.

Action steps:

• Register your parent's address at DMAchoice.org to reduce direct mail volume (costs $2 for 10 years of suppression).
• Register their phone number at donotcall.gov (this won't stop criminal scammers, but it reduces the noise level).
• Establish a household rule: any prize notification requires a 24-hour waiting period and a family consultation before any action is taken.
• Review their mail together during visits. Look for "You've been selected" envelopes — a hallmark sign they're on a targeting list.

If you want a comprehensive system for protecting your parent from all fraud types — not just sweepstakes — the Elder Scam Shield guide covers the full defense playbook: phone blocking, financial monitoring, legal protections, and scripts for having these conversations without triggering defensiveness.

The sweepstakes scam is persuasive precisely because it exploits hope. Your job isn't to crush that hope — it's to redirect it toward verification before any money changes hands. That 24-hour waiting period is the simplest, most effective defense there is.