The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has this advice for consumers who are thinking about responding to a foreign lottery or other potential cross-border scams:

• If you are a US citizen and you play a foreign lottery through the mail or by phone, you are violating federal law.
• If you buy one foreign lottery ticket, expect more bogus offers for lottery or investment "opportunities." Your name will be placed on "sucker lists" that fraudulent telemarketers buy and sell.
• Keep your Social Security, credit card and bank account numbers to yourself. Scam artists often ask for them during an unsolicited sales pitch.
• Do not fall for a promise. Telephone solicitations that require an upfront fee for advance-fee loans, unidentified investment opportunities or prize promotions are against U.S. law. Furthermore, legitimate lenders do not guarantee a loan before you apply, especially if you have bad credit or no credit record.
• If you do not recognize a telephone area code, check it out in your telephone directory.
• The bottom line, the commission says, is to ignore all solicitations for foreign lottery promotions. If you receive lottery material from a foreign country, give it to your local postmaster or contact your state attorney general's office or the FTC.

For further consumer information please consult the following government agencies web sites:

Warning: Do not send any money or personal details to anyone who says that you have won a prize or anything else in a lottery or sweepstake that you have not previously entered. Such claims are almost certainly frauds. Always check fully any person or organisation before sending anything to them.
Lottery and Sweepstake themed advance fee frauds are on the increase. Individuals are targeted by e-mail and notified that they are a category A, B or C winner of a substantial amount of money, usually totalling millions of dollars, pounds or euros.
'Processing Fees'
The processing fee is usually the way to identify these scams. In some cases a 'processing fee' is mentioned in the initial 'win' communication. However some fraudsters wait until the 'win' recipient is sufficiently interested before asking for money.
Up front fees before the release of the 'jackpot' are usually justified as insurance costs, claim verification charge or a fee stipulated by a regulatory authority. There is nothing in British law, nor would there ever be, that requires a prize winner to make any payment in order to claim a prize.
Never respond to any such requests for advance payment.
"But they haven't asked for any money."
Some fraudsters set out to steal identities. Stop and think before you ever release personal information such as passport number, home address, telephone number, banking details, etc, to unknown organisations.
Websites
Many win notifications contain hyper-links to websites purporting to act for the lottery organisers. Taking the form of financial institutions such as insurance companies, the management of 'lottery' funds will appear as only a minor part of their wider organisation.
They may seem professional at first glance, but most do not bear close scrutiny. Most of these websites have been pirated from genuine organisations; as a result of cutting and pasting you may find that text is inconsistent, spelling irregular and the Contacts page will contain mobile phone numbers.
Finally….
How can you win a lottery or sweepstake if you never purchased a ticket?

Fraudsters Get Fat on "The Fat One"
UNITED KINGDOM (December 2005) -- Fraudsters are once again trying to hijack one of the world's biggest lotteries by blitzing thousands of UK consumers with phoney "you've won" letters.
The mail-outs claim recipents will share a GBP7million fortune in Spanish lottery El Gordo - "The Fat One." "Winners" are asked to provide bank details and told to pay a percentage of their "prize" so the money can be released..........................Subscribers

Pennsylvania Lottery Thwarts Attempt to Claim Powerball Prize with Forged Ticket
HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania, USA (November 15, 2005) -- A Carlisle man faces charges of forgery and theft by deception in connection with a failed attempt to use a fake Powerball ticket to claim an $853,492 prize. The ticket scam failed when the forged ticket couldn't pass the Lottery's validation tests..............................Subscribers

Fake "Gordo Navideño" Lottery Tickets Hit the Streets
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (October 23, 2005) -- Buyers of  the "Gordo Navideño", the nickname to the Christmas lottery, may turn out to be victims of a scam if they aren't careful when making their purchase, as scam artists have already made counterfeit copies and are on the street for sale.............................Subscribers

Consumers Targeted by Elaborate Lottery Scam
BELFAST, Northern Ireland (October 10, 2005) -- Ulster consumers are being targeted by an elaborate Irish lottery scam.
A number of people from Northern Ireland have already parted with cash in the hope of making big money in the Irish Lotto with the help of a bogus internet site.
People from around the world have also been duped into signing up to the scam which pledges to enter customers' chosen numbers in the Irish Lottery, double- check the numbers after each draw and forward on details of the winning numbers for each draw. The online company - Irish Subscription Service - also offers to pay out winnings in whatever way the customer chooses within 48 hours..................................Subscribers

Island Paradise Lottery - F.S.C Public Warnings

Island Paradise Lottery The Financial Supervision Commission have been made aware of emails allegedly originating from Island Paradise Lottery. This entity purports, within the emails, to have an address at Paradise Office, 2, Quay Terrace, Ramsey, Isle of Man. Extensive checks by the Commission have failed to establish the existence of any such address on the Isle of Man.............................Subscribers

Spanish Police Raid Nigerian Lottery Scammers, Arrest 150 Suspects
MADRID, Spain (July 19, 2005) -- In recent years, the National Police have dealt several blows to groups devoted to lottery fraud. But the one yesterday was a knockout punch..............................Subscribers

Texas Lottery Commission Warns Public Against Internet Scam In Circulation
AUSTIN, Texas, USA (April 29, 2005) - The Texas Lottery Commission wants the public to beware of an Internet scam currently in circulation that leads readers to believe they may have won a lottery prize. The subject title of the e-mail scam, "Claim Your Money," appears to be endorsed by the Texas Lottery® and several other world lotteries................................Subscribers

"This e-mail is a delivery mechanism for malicious software that might include damaging computer viruses, spyware or other software. Opening any attachment or viewing any web site that is referenced in that e-mail will cause unnecessary risk to a person's computer or their personal information,"

Scam Alert: Don't Fall for Bogus Lottery Prize Phone Calls
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico (April 22, 2005) - New Mexico Lottery officials are warning residents about a phone scam that instructs people to meet at non-existent locations to claim non-existent New Mexico Lottery prizes, leaving their homes empty for possible burglaries..................................Subscribers

Texas Lottery® Warns Houston-Area Residents Latin Lotto Scam On The Rise Again
AUSTIN, Texas, USA (April 14, 2005) - A woman in the Bellaire area of Houston lost $9,800 to two Hispanic females who sold a supposed "winning" Texas Lottery® ticket to her claiming they couldn't redeem the prize because they were not American citizens...................................Read the full story at: Vol.31 No.4

Minnesota State Lottery Reminds Players to Be Alert to Lottery Scams
MINNESOTA, USA (March 2005) --The Minnesota State Lottery reminds its players and the public that there are many scams taking place across Minnesota and the rest of the country, some that are lottery-related...............................Read the full story at: Vol.30 No.12

New Warning on Lottery Scam
SYDNEY, NSW, Australia (March 2, 2005) -- A European lottery scam is targeting unsuspecting Australian consumers, according to the NSW government..........................Subscribers

Another Scam Surfaces Passing-Off as ONCE Spanish Lottery.
MITTAGONG, NSW, Australia (January 18, 2005) -- Its hard to imagine that there is anyone left in the world who is not aware of these scams, yet they continue to land in people's email box every day. Here is yet another example of a scam trying to pass-off as the Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles (ONCE), the Spanish organisation for blind and partially-sighted people. Lottery Insider will continue to forward these emails to the relevant Australian authorities as a public service..............................Subscribers

SCAM Artists Using Oz Lotto to Rip Americans Off
SYDNEY, NSW, Australia (January 10, 2005) -- Criminals in Canada were using an Australian lottery as a front to rip people off, the Sun Herald reported today. Con artists sent letters to victims saying they had won more than half a million dollars in the multi-state Oz Lotto 6/45 lottery draw, and asked them to send a cheque to cover legal fees. About 50 Americans fell for the scam, sending cash and cheques for thousands of dollars to a Sydney address, the newspaper reported. NSW Office of Fair Trading investigators tracked the contact details to toll-free telephone lines in Canada, intercepting and returning the money. It is working with Canadian officials to track down the perpetrators.
SOURCE: Sun Herald via AAP Information Services.

Dicey Delivery - Lottery Scam Warning
ADELAIDE, South Australia (January 5, 2005) -- Unsuspecting consumers are the latest targets of bogus emails "notifying" them they have won a large lottery prize from SA Lottery. Not to be confused with this State’s government-owned lotteries operator, SA Lotteries, SA Lottery is an overseas company that has been emailing random addresses promoting the scam. The email asks the recipient to send a range of personal details to enable collection of their "prize"..............................Read the full story at: Vol.30 No.2