Lottery scams promise you money but are out for your personal information

These new lottery scams make it seem like you are about to get some money. But, the people sending them to you could be fishing for your personal information and your money.

Manuel Franco of Wisconsin recently won the lottery. And now he wants to share some of his $768 million with you.

Except that he doesn’t actually because it’s a scam.

People are using Franco’s name to send out social media messages, text messages, calls or emails telling people they’ve been selected to receive $20,000 or more.

You just have to respond with your personal information to have the money sent to you, which of course, is dangerous.

Bryan Oglesby works with the Better Business Bureau. “They are pretending to be him create fake social media accounts and they are enticing people to give up their personal identity and even give up some money and we have recent reports here to the Better Business Bureau of local consumers in Southwest Florida bringing this to our attention,” Oglesby said.

These kinds of scams are called imposter scams. They are often designed to look like they come from celebrities.

There are a few ways to protect yourself from these imposter scams:

• Don’t provide money or information to people that are promising you money in exchange
• If they ask you for money in order to prove your identity, it’s a scam
• Always report the scam to law enforcement

The real Manuel Franco is not the criminal here. Prior to winning the lottery, he was working at a Target store. After his win, he did give out some gift cards to shoppers.