What You Need To Know About Arkansas Lottery Scams

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery (ASL) is warning players to be on the lookout for a scam involving callers falsely claiming to be lottery representatives.

According to ASL officials, they have received reports of scammers calling random phone numbers and telling people they have won a million-dollar lottery ticket or other cash prize.

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ASL Executive Director Sharon Strong said in a press release,

We have been notified of a caller posing as a lottery representative, offering winning million-dollar tickets to random phone numbers. To be clear, this is a scam.

What Players Need to Know About Lottery Scam in Arkansas

Lottery officials want to remind players that winning lottery tickets cannot be awarded over the phone. Tickets must be purchased from licensed Arkansas Scholarship Lottery retailers, and the lottery does not randomly call people to offer prizes.

There is one exception. Players who win a Play It Again Second-Chance drawing through The Club in the official Arkansas Lottery app may be contacted about their prize. However, those drawings are only for previously non-winning instant tickets that have been entered into the promotion.

Winners can also verify their prize through The Club’s Drawings and Winners page.

How to Protect Yourself

The Arkansas Scholarship Lottery says anyone contacted about a lottery prize or drawing they did not enter should ignore the call and not provide any personal information.

Officials also warn that any request to pay a fee to claim winnings or visit a location other than the ASL Claim Center is a clear sign of a scam.

Anyone who has been contacted by a suspected lottery scammer is asked and encouraged to report it by emailing the ASL Director of Investigations and Enforcement, calling the Arkansas Lottery Security Hotline at (888) 606-6292, and filing a complaint with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division.