Lottery Scam Home Menu:

How to identify a lottery scam letter

How to really verify a check or money order

The answers to your most frequent lottery scam questions

It is illegal for US Citizens to enter foreign lotteries: Federal Statute

Look in the Lottery Scam Email database for emails that are like the one you got

Lottery names used in lottery scam letters

Green Card Lottery Scam: Truth and Lies in simple words

International Lotteries vs. Lottery Scams

Luck of the draw: Numbers games and drawings

Free lotteries - Some are legitimate, some are not

List of Official US Federal and State Lottery web sites

Gaming Commissions and Lottery Associations

ID Theft Prevention To-Do List

Threat emails

File a Scam Email Report

Payment Processing & other Counterfeit Draft Scams

FDIC Special Alerts List of Counterfeit Checks

It is illegal for US Citizens

to enter foreign lotteries:

Federal Statute

US Citizens and International Lotteries:

US Code Title 18, Part I, Chapter 95

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode18/usc_sup_01_18_10_I_20_95.html

TITLE 18 - CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE
PART I - CRIMES
CHAPTER 95 - RACKETEERING

Sec. 1953. Interstate transportation of wagering paraphernalia

(a) Whoever, except a common carrier in the usual course of its business, knowingly carries or sends in interstate or foreign commerce any record, paraphernalia, ticket, certificate, bills, slip, token, paper, writing, or other device used, or to be used, or adapted, devised, or designed for use in

(a) bookmaking; or

(b) wagering pools with respect to a sporting event; or

(c) in a numbers, policy, bolita, or similar game

shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for not more than five years or both.

(b) This section shall not apply to

(1) parimutuel betting equipment, parimutuel tickets where legally acquired, or parimutuel materials used or designed for use at racetracks or other sporting events in connection with which betting is legal under applicable State law, or

(2) the transportation of betting materials to be used in the placing of bets or wagers on a sporting event into a State in which such betting is legal under the statutes of that State, or

(3) the carriage or transportation in interstate or foreign commerce of any newspaper or similar publication, or (continued below) 

(4) equipment, tickets, or materials used or designed for use within a State in a lottery conducted by that State acting under authority of State law, or

(5) the transportation in foreign commerce to a destination in a foreign country of equipment, tickets, or materials designed to be used within that foreign country in a lottery which is authorized by the laws of that foreign country.

(c) Nothing contained in this section shall create immunity from criminal prosecution under any laws of any State, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, territory, possession, or the District of Columbia.

(d) For the purposes of this section

(1) ''State'' means a State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territory or possession of the United States; and

(2) ''foreign country'' means any empire, country, dominion, colony, or protectorate, or any subdivision thereof (other than the United States, its territories or possessions).

(e) For the purposes of this section ''lottery'' means the pooling of proceeds derived from the sale of tickets or chances and allotting those proceeds or parts thereof by chance to one or more chance takers or ticket purchasers. ''Lottery'' does not include the placing or accepting of bets or wagers on sporting events or contests.