Experts say to be wary of lottery scams as Mega Millions jackpot increases

COLUMBIA, Mo (KMIZ)

Lottery fever has been heating up drawing people to buy lottery tickets.

The Powerball last week was more than $1 billion and Tuesday's Mega Millions drawing currently sits at $820 million.

When Mega Millions and Powerball jackpots grow, scammers will lure people on social media.

"Let's say (there is a paid advertisement on social media (to) join in this 'pot.' This pool of people buying tickets to up your chances like, 'Give us a dollar you get X-percentage of the 100 tickets.' And again what it is it's ultimately just a scam," Nick Knoth of the Better Business Bureau said.

Knoth said scammers will call and ask you to verify personal information such as a Social Security or bank routing number.

Scammers could also cause you to commit a crime without you evening knowing.

"Scammers will send the victims money and ask them like, 'OK, we will send you money and you're going to send it back to us at this account number a different number," Knoth said. "What's happening in that case a third party a victim is being used to launder money."

The Missouri Lottery says they will never contact players by phone, require personal information, require a winner to provide money to win a prize and they will never confirm a winning ticket by phone.

The Missouri Lottery says winners of prizes of more than $600 will need to provide their Social Security number to lottery officials, but that information will never be collected by phone.

If you're not sure if something is ever a scam it's best to contact the Missouri Lottery to verify.

The next drawing for the Mega Millions is Tuesday night.