The recent jackpot drop that saw one lucky player bag $1.3 billion from Powerball has motivated scammers to ride high on the post-event hype that has seen many people eager to get good news about winning a jackpot themselves.

Fool Me Once Shame on… Me?

A text message circulated last weekend promised Oregon residents to have a chance to win a part of the big jackpot as the person who had won the Powerball was going to hand-pick 10 people and share the jackpot with them.

People were then encouraged to call a phone number to claim their winnings, and many followed through. However, the Oregon Lottery assured that this was a phishing scam, which involves receiving unsolicited messages from random parties, as explained by Oregon Lottery assistant director of security Justin Hedlund.

“Some common warning signs of phishing scams include receiving an unsolicited message with a sense of urgency or a request for personal information. We expect there may be other scams out there trying to leverage the Powerball winner’s story, and it’s a red flag if something seems too good to be true.”

Not much other information has been released by the Oregon Lottery, including the consequences for residents who may have fallen in for the ruse, nor how many people may have been impacted. Carriers have been notified about the scam, however.

The Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot drops are habitually associated with a heightened level of activity in scam messages. Mega Millions similarly warned consumers about ongoing scams that were trying to target unwitting citizens and swindle them out of their own money rather than awarding a jackpot.

Scammers Are Relentless – Because It Works

One of the common tactics used by scammers is to make their victims believe that they have won but would need to pay a release fee before they can claim their prize. These types of scams are very common, cautions Powerball.

“Lotteries will never ask you to pay a fee to collect a Powerball prize. If you are asked to pay a fee to claim a prize, you are likely being scammed, and you should not share any personal or banking information with those entities,” an official statement on its website reads. Yet, constant vigilance is needed to avoid becoming a victim of one of these scammers by accident.

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The Virginia Lottery currently offers a wide range of scratcher games. With dozens of games, prizes vary between $20 and the staggering $500,000. Last week one South Boston man collected the latter prize, after buying a Magnificent 7s scratcher ticket. The lucky man won the game’s $500,000 top prize after purchasing a ticket from the Food Lion at 3346 Halifax Road in South Boston, Virginia.

The hefty win marked the first top prize won from Magnificent 7s. Upon buying the winning lottery ticket, the man scratched it off at the parking lot and realized that he won the game’s grand prize. When asked what he intends to do with the winnings, the lucky winner, Russell Gomes, said that he wants to pay for a vacation he planned before the win.

Considering that one top prize from Magnificent 7s was won, there are two more top prizes remaining. While the overall odds of winning a prize from the scratch-off ticket are 1 in 5.9, the chances of winning the top prize are 1 in 612,000.

Currently, profits from the Virginia Lottery benefit K-12 education in the state. Halifax County, Gomes’ place of residence, benefitted from more than $4.4 million in K-12 education funding from the Lottery for the last fiscal year.

On the other hand, according to the Lottery, some $867 million was raised for K-12 education for Fiscal Year 2023. The sum represents a whopping 10% of the state’s total K-12 education budget.

The Lucky Winner Shares His Excitement

The winner of the Magnificent 7s scratcher game’s top prize works as a truck driver. He purchased the ticket just after finishing his shift. In fact, Gomes was on his way to buy some chicken for dinner. Undoubtedly, he will always remember this particular visit to the grocery store that made him half a million richer.

Gomes collected his winnings last week. “I really didn’t believe it! It feels great,” he shared with Lottery officials when collecting the $500,000 top prize from Magnificent 7s. Still, it’s important to note that the collected prize is before the applicable taxes in Virginia.

Besides two top prizes, Magnificent 7s has three second-tier prizes of $10,000 each which remain unclaimed. The scratch-off lottery game had five $2,000 prizes but only one remains unclaimed. The price per scratch-off ticket for the game is $10.

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Mega Millions published the news on Sunday, confirming that a player had won $1 million in the latest draw with five correct numbers, but short of the six numbers needed to bag the $284 million prize pool instead.

The ticket matched the numbers for the Friday, May 3 drawing, but unfortunately did not guess the Mega Ball number of 11. The winning numbers for both the ticket and the big jackpot were 6, 13, 15, 53, and 56. Only one ticket came this close in the latest drawing, out of millions sold tickets.

Mega Millions also confirmed that 908,000 tickets in the United States won prizes ranging from as little as $2 to $20,000. The odds of winning the actual jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350 and a ticket to enter the event costs $2.

With the big prize missed out, this means that millionaire hopefuls will have the chance to try again to win the $306 million on Tuesday, May 7. The combined value of the Powerball and Mega Millions jackpot has now officially exceeded $500 million, meaning that the United States has much to look forward to in lottery prize draws.

The Powerball will be drawn on Monday, May 6, and offer a chance to make another player the winner tonight.

In the meantime, the current Mega Millions jackpot is still a far cry from its record in March last year, when a New Jersey player won the eye-watering $1.13 billion and opted to claim the full reward for a truly life-altering prize pool.

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Lotto America, one of the popular lottery games that are a part of Powerball, announced its latest jackpot winner. Earlier this week, a lucky lottery player from Minnesota hit the game’s jackpot by guessing correctly all six numbers drawn on Wednesday. To win the grand prize, the player guessed correctly all red balls: 7, 12, 17, 22 and 52, along with blue Star Ball 3, granting him the game’s jackpot, a whopping $3.11 million.

The aforementioned $3.11 million represents annual installment payments for a period of 29 years. In case the winner selects a lump cash sum, the jackpot would be decreased to $1.43 million. Still, it is important to mention the two sums are estimated before taxes are applied.

The latest jackpot win marks the second time a Lotto America jackpot has been won in Minnesota since the start of the year. Last month, on March 4, 2024, another jackpot from the popular lottery game was won. At the time, a lucky player secured a $3.73 million win.

Currently, Lotto America is played in 13 US states, including Minnesota, New Mexico, Iowa, Delaware, Tennessee and West Virginia, among others. The price of the draw game is $1 and the overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 9.63. On the other hand, the odds of winning the Lotto America jackpot are 1 in 25.9 million.

Many Jackpots Drop In the Land of 10,000 Lakes

The biggest Lotto America jackpot was won on April 1, 2023, in Iowa. At the time, a lucky lottery player secured the mind-blowing $40.03 million. The second-biggest prize from the popular lottery game dropped back in March 2018 when a player from Minnesota won $22.82 million. A lucky player from Minnesota is also the holder of the third-largest Lotto America jackpot from July 2019 when they won $21.6 million.

In September, a lottery player from Tennessee secured a $9.71 million jackpot from Lotto America, while in December, another player from the same state took home a $3.1 million jackpot.

Considering the most recent win, the Lotto America grand prize is now reset to $2 million. In case a player wins the prize on the next draw, they can secure a cash sum of $920,000. The next drawing of Lotto America is scheduled for Saturday, April 27.

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