The Latvian gambling regulator has issued a warning about fake lotteries and online fraud.

The Lotteries and Gambling Supervisory Inspection (IAUI) has advised consumers to carefully research operators before buying any tickets, warning that it is now “virtually impossible” to identify crooks running fake lotto scams.

However, the IAUI did say that consumers can reduce the risk of falling for a scam by watching for red flags like being contacted by phone or email and told they need to pay taxes on their winnings, account opening fees, or transfer fees etc.

The regulator also reminded people that a legitimate operator won’t be using free public email servers like Gmail.com or Hotmail.com, and that poor grammar and spelling in email communications is a good indicator of a scam.

It also said that communications from legitimate lottery operators should include the customer’s name and the number of the winning ticket, which should always match with the information the consumer holds.

Staying with Latvia, just last week the IAUI disclosed that 127 people in the country had so far received state-funded psychological support for gambling-related problems since an initiative was launched in July.

AYO.NEWS says:

With the number of lottery draws around the world growing, and the number of online lottery services, both legitimate and fraudulent, also exploding, its never been more important to educated consumers on how to stay safe. Not only do fraudulent operators hurt the victims, but they also do substantial damage to the reputation of the industry as a whole.

AYO.NEWS says features the opinion of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of Pentagon Digital Limited.