Don’t pay to enter a sweepstakes, improve your odds, or collect a prize. Treat an unexpected prize message as unverified until you check its rules and confirm the sponsor through contact information you find independently. In U.S. Federal Trade Commission guidance, legitimate sweepstakes are free; requests for advance fees, financial details, sensitive personal information, or rushed action are warning signs.
Start with the most important test: Are they asking you to pay?
Stop if someone says you must pay to enter, increase your chances, or claim a prize. The FTC says legitimate sweepstakes do not require payment to collect a prize. Calling a charge “tax,” “processing,” “insurance,” or “shipping” does not make an advance payment request safe. The FTC’s prize-scam guidance explains this warning sign, and its advice dated June 2025 says to not pay for a prize.
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Do not send money through a wire transfer, gift card, payment app, or cryptocurrency because a prize representative tells you to. The FTC identifies these as payment methods scammers may use that can be difficult to reverse. A fee demand is reason enough to stop; you do not need to prove who sent the message before protecting yourself.
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Check the rules and entry method
Look for official rules that identify the sponsor, explain who is eligible, state when the promotion runs, describe the prize, and explain how to enter for free. Missing or confusing rules do not, by themselves, establish who is behind an offer, but they leave you without basic terms to verify.
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For the United States, FTC business guidance says sweepstakes-type promotions that require participants to make a purchase are illegal. State laws may also impose their own disclosure, licensing, or bonding requirements, so requirements are not necessarily identical for every promotion. The FTC’s Advertising FAQs for Small Business explains the general sweepstakes and state-law context.
Telephone promotions have additional rules in covered cases. The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule guidance describes disclosures such as the odds of winning and how to participate without paying. Those requirements apply to covered telephone prize promotions; do not assume every offer, channel, or jurisdiction follows an identical checklist.
Verify the sponsor outside the message
Find the sponsor’s contact details yourself, using an independently located official website or another reliable source, and ask whether the promotion and notification are genuine. Do not use a phone number, link, or email address supplied in an unsolicited message as your only check. A familiar company name, government-sounding organization, official-looking seal, or polished website is not proof that the sender represents the real sponsor.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsImpersonation is a documented tactic: in a December 2010 enforcement action, the FTC described an operation that posed as government agencies and collected payments for bogus prize money. The example is historical, but it illustrates why independently checking identity matters.
Protect your information and take time to decide
Do not provide bank or card details, or sensitive personal information, to claim an unexpected prize. A legitimate-sounding explanation does not make a request safe. If the message pressures you to act immediately, threatens that you will lose the prize, or discourages you from checking with anyone else, pause instead of responding under pressure. The FTC lists urgency and requests for payment or sensitive information among the warning signs in its consumer guidance.
What to do if the offer looks fraudulent
- Stop the interaction. Do not pay, click links, or disclose information while you are unsure about the offer.
- Check independently. Review the official rules and contact the named sponsor using details you found separately.
- Report suspected fraud. The FTC accepts reports at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. You can also contact your state attorney general or local consumer-protection office. For a mailed promotion, the FTC identifies the U.S. Postal Inspection Service as a reporting route.
- Respond to possible identity misuse. If you already shared personal information and it was misused, use IdentityTheft.gov for identity-theft recovery guidance.
What a legitimacy check can—and cannot—tell you
These checks help you identify warning signs and verify a sponsor, but they do not establish whether every particular promotion is legitimate. A specific assessment depends on the actual rules, the message or entry method, the sponsor’s independently verified identity, and the relevant jurisdiction. State requirements can differ, and general consumer guidance is not individualized legal advice.
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