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Fake result sites, prize-call frauds and fee scams target lottery players every day. Learn the red flags, how to verify a real result, and what to do if you are contacted.
Lottery results are public, draws happen every day, and the prizes are large. That combination makes lottery players a favourite target for fraudsters. A scam only needs one moment of excitement — the second you believe you have won — to get you to pay money or share personal details. The good news is that almost every lottery scam follows the same few patterns. Once you know them, they are easy to spot.
There are two golden rules that protect you against nearly all of them. First, a genuine state lottery never asks a winner to pay anything to claim a prize. Second, nobody can predict, leak or fix a government draw. Any message that breaks either rule is a scam, no matter how official it looks.
This is the most common fraud. You get a call, SMS or WhatsApp message saying you have won a lottery prize — sometimes a huge amount — and that you must pay a processing fee, tax, courier charge or account activation charge to release it. The caller may sound professional, use the name of a real lottery, and even send a fake winning certificate.
The truth is simple: real lottery departments and authorised retailers never ask winners to pay a fee to receive a prize. Tax, where it applies, is deducted from the prize itself before payment — it is never collected from you in advance through UPI, bank transfer, gift cards or cryptocurrency. Any demand for an advance payment is fraud, full stop. Never share your bank details, OTP or UPI PIN with such callers.
Lookalike websites and social media pages copy the design of popular result sites and post wrong numbers — or old numbers presented as today's result. A player who checks such a page may believe they have won, or miss a real win.
Protect yourself with three checks. First, confirm the draw date and the draw name: every genuine result belongs to a specific date and a named draw (for example, a Sunday draw has a different name from a Monday draw). A result page that shows numbers without a clear date and draw name is suspect. Second, cross-check the first prize on a second source before celebrating. Third, remember that the official gazette published by the state lottery department is the final word — everything else is a reference.
Social media accounts and messaging groups sell “VIP tips”, “leaked numbers” or “100% sure” predictions, sometimes for a subscription fee. Government lottery draws are conducted under supervision with sealed machines and published procedures. No seller, insider or software can know the outcome in advance. Paying for predictions is a guaranteed loss — the only person who wins is the seller.
State lottery tickets are paper tickets sold through authorised agents. Anyone offering to sell you a ticket over WhatsApp, Telegram or a random website is not an official channel. You may pay and receive nothing that can ever be claimed, or a fake ticket that no lottery office will honour. Buy only from licensed sellers, and keep the physical ticket safe — it is the only document that can claim a prize.
If any of these appear, stop and treat the message as a scam: a fee demanded before you receive a prize; pressure to act within an hour or the prize will “expire”; instructions to keep the win secret from everyone; payment requested by UPI, gift card or cryptocurrency; a prize for a draw you never bought a ticket for; or contact from a personal mobile number by someone claiming to be from a lottery department.
Do not pay anything and do not share OTPs, bank details or ticket photos. Save screenshots of the message and the sender's number. Report the fraud on the national cybercrime helpline 1930 or at cybercrime.gov.in. If an elderly relative plays the lottery, warn them about prize calls — older players are targeted most often.
Check the draw date and draw name, read the full prize-wise list (not just the first prize), and use a ticket checker that tests every tier, including last-digit tiers. If you believe you have won a large prize, verify it against the official gazette before taking any further step.
A real prize needs a real ticket bought before the draw from an authorised seller. Everything else — calls, fees, leaked numbers, secret tips — is noise designed to take your money. When in doubt, pause and verify before you pay or share anything.
Lottery Sambad is an unofficial reference and is not affiliated with any state lottery department. Always verify a winning ticket against the official gazette before claiming a prize.
Daily Dear draws at 1 PM, 6 PM and 8 PM, plus seasonal bumper draws.
One draw every day at 3 PM, with a different lottery on each day of the week.
Labhlaxmi at 4 PM, the shared Dear draw at 6 PM, and Sikkim bumper draws.
Dear 50 every evening, plus Dear 100, Dear 200, Dear 20, Dear 1000 and seasonal bumpers.
Several weekly draws every afternoon, plus monthly draws and seasonal bumpers.