That's how the scam starts. An ordinary email telling you that your win has passed through to the accounting department, but the legal team require a 'claim fee' or deposit so they can send it you.

It takes many forms, but the essence of this email or letter is that you have to pay up front to get your win. To make it look legitimate, these scammers often throw in some information to make it look real:

Source: Cyren 

- The draw number, date of the draw, the winning numbers and the jackpot amount.
- An official logo of a lottery organisation.
- A real address of the lottery organisation.

So here's three questions you must ask yourself before shouting out in glee:

1. Did I buy a ticket? In most cases you won't have bought a ticket, and if you did, the numbers won't match.

2. What lottery organisation sends out notifications by email? Very few do these days, so it's likely to be a fake.

3. If you have any further doubts, look at the email address. It's usually a free Hotmail or Yahoo address. No organisation uses these.

Here's what you should do:

• Don't reply 
• Don't waste your time reading it
• Don't ask for details 
• Don't send an email to them 
• Don't send money 
• Don't phone them

In fact, just delete their email and forget it. There are no genuine lottery winning emails if you didn't buy a ticket, and it's rare to get one of you did buy a ticket.