The Man In The Bear Suit - What Some Lottery Winners Are Forced To Endure

Many Chinese lottery winners are able to accept their official prize check in costume, like this winner in a bear suit. Watch the video below. Photo: China News

It was a shock that many winners experience, but Brenda Schley wasn't prepared for what happened immediately after her $1.7 million win in the Canada Lotto 649 last year.

Hours after her win was announced, she experienced some upsetting attention.

It wasn't a major win - just $1.7 million in the Canada 649 - but for Brenda Schley the unwanted attention quickly came.

Strange cars turned up outside her Clearwater, B.C., home.
Strangers began rubbing the 57-year-old for luck.
"Suddenly — people know a lot about you."
She was overwhelmed with money requests.

"It's almost scary," says Schley to CBC News, a year after matching six out of six numbers on a Lotto 649 draw in 2014.

"We had to leave the house for about 10 days because the phone was ringing off the hook."

News reportage of Brenda's win. Video: CFJC TV

Schley says she can't imagine the spotlight awaiting the holder of a $50 million winning Lotto Max ticket who stepped forward this week after waiting nearly a year to claim the prize.

Like it or not, their days of anonymity are about to end once the check presentation is made.

The fascinating story behind China's $81 million bearsuit-man. Video: CCTV

Brenda Schley says she was overwhelmed by requests for money after winning her prize.

"I think people think that they have a choice that they can just say 'I'm not going to tell anyone if I won the money'," Schley says. "I've heard people say that — but I know that's not the way it works."

Maryland is one US state where lottery winners can stay anonymous after their win.

To make matters more difficult for winners, one of the conditions of receiving a prize from the B.C. Lottery Corporation is consenting to the release of your name and photo as the winner of the prize.

Similar rules govern other Canadian lotteries.

Chris Fairclough via Twitter"The minute a player hands over his three or five dollars and purchases a lottery ticket, he is agreeing to those conditions," says BCLC's Chris Fairclough.

Lotteries generate an incredible public interest, he says.

"Our job is to pay out the rightful ticket winner and to ensure transparency so that the public — and lottery players — know that there are indeed winners."

But that doesn't make the spotlight any easier to endure, one winner says.

While it seems a group has shared the prize in this Connecticut Powerball jackpot of $254 million, they are actually representatives of the winner who remained anonymous. Photo: abc news

"I would have liked the option for it to be private," says one Vancouver Island winner.

The woman, who won a million dollars in 2014, has her picture among dozens on BCLC's website featuring dazed but happy winners struggling to hold up giant cheques overflowing with lines of zeroes.

She says she understands the need to advertise and the public's desire to know, not to mention a lack of sympathy for lottery winners: "But suddenly — people know a lot about you."

Another winner from Kansas Mega Millions preferred to stay anonymous for the $218 million jackpot.

WHAT TO DO: To stay hidden and under the radar, here's 6 tips that will help make your life a little more secure:

1. If you have a business that can be traced to you, sell it. After all, you probably won't need the stress and daily chores that every business has. If it is a profitable business (and very few are), think twice about putting it under management - it could be more trouble managing the manager!

2. Put a privacy block on your phones. Don't use your current cellphones. Store them and buy one with a prepaid plan, and only give that number to trusted family and friends. Be prepared to throw it away and get another as soon as someone outside your known group rings you.

3. If you plan to stay in your own home, you will face all the problems you've read about here. So you may need to shift. Don't do what most people do and stay with a friend or relative - you can be easily traced by anyone who knows your name. Take a 6 month lease on a nice property in the countryside and prepare to enjoy it!

4. Keep a low profile during the first 6 months. Do not buy expensive cars or draw attention to yourself by flashing wads of cash about. The idea is to let the fuss and attention die down. Six months is usually enough.

5. Don't use your current credit cards. Get a debit card or an anonymous ATM Debit card. And use an anonymous browser like Anonymouse for your computer so that you can't be traced when you check your bank accounts or make plane bookings.

6. Have all mail - your bank statements, bills and correspondence, everything - sent to a private box which you rent under your blind trust name. Visit the box to collect your mail only at night after business hours.

Andy Carter of Camelot, the UK's National lottery operator advises winners on publicity, and is often the person many big winners see first.