Following reports of alleged lottery scams that have cropped up over the past weeks in social media posts, New Jersey Lottery is cautioning residents

to beware of any social media postings, emails or telephone calls from anyone promising lottery winnings, asking for money or offering to share money from Lottery prizes won.

Lottery scams are nothing new. Unscrupulous individuals masquerade as Lottery officials or previous winners of large lottery jackpots wanting to give away substantial sums of money, or they falsely claim that the person contacted is the winner of a big lottery jackpot. In these cases, the person is asked to provide personal and financial information and/or pay a fee to cover processing costs to receive a “financial gift” or prize.

It is important that a prizewinner should NEVERprovide any personal or financial information over the phone or social media. The New Jersey Lottery never requires winners to pay a fee to obtain the prize. Cash prizes are awarded to players once an authentic, validated, winning New Jersey Lottery ticket is presented for claim.

If in doubt after receiving any type of call or notification, residents are encouraged to call the New Jersey Lottery Security Office at 609-599-6100 for verification.

The New Jersey Lottery provides some simple tips for players, retailers and the general public to protect themselves against scams.

• NEVER provide your credit card number, personal banking information, passwords, transfer funds or cash, money orders or checks to anyone promising lottery winnings.

• Only buy lottery tickets from one of the more than 7,000 authorized New Jersey Lottery retailers throughout the State.