How to recognize a fake lottery and not let scammers deceive you. Tips from Stoloto
Miscellaneous / / April 04, 2023
How to recognize cheating in lotteries
To meet negative reviews in which lotteries are called a divorce or a waste of money is real both on the Internet and in life. Some authors could have been led to such an opinion by a loss, while others by a real swindle. True, the review in this case is not entirely correct: it is not the lottery that is deceiving, but the scammers hiding behind its name.
Internet criminals can prey on both potential buyers of lottery tickets and people who are already waiting for the draw. The scheme of deception is almost always the same. First, the scammers create a fake game page with a design that resembles that of the official website. Then they launch an email campaign that can either talk about a win-win draw or the amount that the person supposedly has already won. In the first case, after clicking on the link, it is offered to buy a ticket - in reality, of course, it does not exist, and the money simply falls into the wallet of scammers. In the second - to pay a commission for receiving the winnings.
Such a scheme of scammers against Stoloto lotteries is very popular. In 2021, more than 23 thousand such sites were blocked, in the first half of 2022 another 18 thousand were added to them. Fraudsters often take images of state games of the Stoloto brand as a basis, and the favorite among them is Russian Lotto. This lottery has been around for almost three decades, and literally everyone knows about it. She even has a national award "Brand No. 1 in Russia", so the brand is trusted.
The good news is that exposing a dishonest lottery distributor is easy and anyone can do it. It is enough to adhere to the following rules:
- Don't click on questionable links. Even if the prize is very tempting. Type the name of the lottery into a search engine and go to the correct site: if the draw turns out to be real, it will most likely be on the official page. If you regularly participate in lotteries, bookmark your browser and go to the Stoloto website through it.
- Read the URL carefully. For fake sites, it definitely differs by at least one character. For example, instead of the correct stoloto.ru there will be stoloto1.ru or 100loto.ru.
- Don't Believe the Winning Message If You Haven't Purchased Any Tickets. It seems that this is a basic cybersecurity rule and it is almost impossible to believe in such a thing. But if the prize is decent, there is a chance to be deceived. Do not follow the link from the letter, no matter how much they promise.
- Do not transfer money for winnings. All lotteries of the Stoloto brand do not require any commission from the winners for receiving the winnings. Even the tax on large winnings, more than 4,000 rubles, is paid by the winner himself after receiving the full amount. And if you are lucky enough to win from 15,000 rubles, then Stoloto will independently deduct the due tax and transfer it to the budget.
- Get a prize only through your personal account on the official website or at points of sale. If you bought an electronic ticket, you can report the victory in your personal account on the official website and in the application, as well as by SMS. But they give out winnings only at official points of sale or through a wallet in Stoloto's personal account. A link to a third-party resource is a sign of fraud. If you bought a printed ticket, that is, you did not register it by phone number, then you cannot receive a win online. But this is easy to do at one of the points of sale. Winnings from 600,000 rubles can only be received to a bank account by personally arriving at the Stoloto lottery center or by going through identification at one of the points of sale and sending documents by mail.
Why people don't believe in fair lotteries
Fear of cheating is not the only reason why even national lotteries are treated with caution. It is difficult for some to believe in the prospect of victory because of a skeptical attitude towards any games. Others are hindered by a lack of confidence in their luck: it seems that if someone wins at Stoloto, this is not a matter of chance, but simply the pathological luck of the lucky one.
Still others are stopped by an unsuccessful participation experience - if the loss has overtaken several times, it may not be easy to imagine that the money goes to someone honestly. It seems that everything is bought and there is no point in trying. This opinion can be supported by a settled memory from the 90s: then, indeed, many private lottery organizers conducted games with violations and without licenses - there were many deceived people.
Another possible reason is the denial of the very concept of easy money. It is difficult to accept the idea that getting a million rubles, or at least a couple of thousand, is really just because of a combination of numbers that has fallen out.
Distrust of lotteries is understandable, but in reality, everything is far from being so scary. Winning Stoloto, Russian Lotto, Golden Horseshoe and other games is more real than it might seem. According to statistics, every fourth ticket in state lotteries under the Stoloto brand is victorious. But the prize can be different: some get hundreds, others thousands, others millions. By the way, more than 7,300 people have already won such a prize in the state lotteries of Russia. And one participant even received a whole billion.
A small amount of winnings is not a reason to be upset and disappointed in the game. It's just how its mechanism works: the prize fund is made up of the money that the participants spent on tickets. People invest an equally small amount, from which prizes of different significance are formed as a result. Who will get a big win, and who will get a modest or even zero, is decided only by chance and the combination of numbers that has fallen out.
How lotteries work in Russia
In Russia, only state lotteries are officially held: private ones have been banned since 2014. Such a monopoly was created for control and maximum honesty. Now the integrity of the draws is monitored using independent systems provided by the organizers - the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation. At the same time, supervision is carried out by the Federal Tax Service, which receives data on each ticket sold, including from cash registers. Thus, lotteries are controlled at all stages.
In addition, according to the law, many requirements are put forward for all lotteries, for example:
- The prize fund should go from 50% to 70% of the proceeds from the lottery. No more, no less.
- 10% of the difference between the lottery operator's revenue and the amount that went to pay out winnings should go to earmarked contributions to the state. These funds are spent on important social projects, such as sporting events.
- The lottery operator needs to confirm his honesty with an irrevocable bank guarantee.
To achieve maximum impartiality of the draw, the features of lottery equipment also allow: lottery drums, kegs, random number generators. The loss of a specific combination in them is the will of chance. The check, which is carried out by the draw commission before each game, helps to eliminate the human factor. For example, in Russian Lotto, all kegs are inspected for signal characteristics, such as minor damage, temperature anomalies or vibration mechanisms: if the “winning” numbers are marked with special markers, the deceivers immediately expose. The commission also monitors the complete set: there is definitely no bag without a “grandfather” or with two pairs of “drumsticks”.
The algorithm for determining the winnings of any lottery is mathematically based on an equal probability of winning for each ticket. Therefore, the real chance to win is equal for all participants. You can check how it works using the free demo version of the Top 3 game on the Stoloto website.
Money is not always the prize in state lotteries. Often they play apartments, cars, travel, smartphones, game consoles. Look for such lots, for example, in the "Housing Lottery" and "Special".
How to play Stoloto
To get a chance to win, just buy a ticket. Option four:
- Offline. At the checkouts of supermarkets, in mobile phone stores, in Stoloto branded stores, there are many points of sale in Russia. They come in two formats of tickets: typographic - classic paper tickets with the number and date of circulation written on the sheet; or lottery coupons - an analogue of an electronic ticket, which is registered by phone number, and information about the game combination is printed on the receipt here.
- On the site. Only on the official Stoloto page - stoloto.ru. All lotteries of the brand are collected here. On the site you can follow the progress of the games, your victories and accumulated prizes. And also subscribe to any lottery: choose a combination of numbers - random or lucky - and then participate with it in each draw. Payment will be made automatically from the electronic wallet in the Stoloto personal account during the start of ticket sales.
- Through the application "Stoloto". Here everything is the same as on the site. Only access to tickets and results via a smartphone is faster and you can find out about winnings from push notifications.
- Via SMS. This method of buying lottery tickets is available to subscribers of four operators: Tele2, Megafon, Beeline and MTS. You can pay from your mobile account and through QIWI e-wallet. However, do not forget that mobile operators charge a fee for their services, so this is not the most profitable way to buy tickets.
It is real to buy a ticket not only for money, but also for bonuses. You can accumulate these by participating in games and promotions on the Stoloto website. Bonuses are also awarded for the purchase of lottery tickets - this is a kind of lottery cashback. You will have to register first. More bonuses are available to those who play the lottery frequently. Such people become members of the "Premium Club" and can participate in special promotions. At the same time, all users of the site have access to a quick selection of their favorite numbers. Also on the site and in the application, you can choose more numbers on the ticket, or quickly buy many tickets at once - a fair way to increase the chance of winning. You can also check lottery coupons in the service - the ticket and circulation number in this case will be indicated on the check or in the Stoloto mobile application.
How to find out the result
Depends on the game format. You can watch Russian Lotto, Housing Lottery, 6 out of 36, Bingo-75 and Golden Horseshoe on TV - drawings are shown on Sunday mornings in the program “We Win!”.
If you accidentally missed the broadcast, the Stoloto.ru website will save you: there, each lottery has its own “Circulation Archive”, where you can find a recording of the broadcasts and the results of all past games. And if the intrigue is not important and you want to know your fate right away, contact the Ticket Check service on the same site. It will allow you to check both printed and electronic tickets or lottery coupons - all you need to know is the name of the lottery, ticket number and draw number. You can also check the dates of the next draws and learn more about the rules of lottery games on the official Stoloto website.
It is also possible to check the result at points of sale or, if the ticket was tied to a phone number, via SMS and in your personal account on the Stoloto website.
The draws of the Sportloto family lotteries, as well as the Bingo-75 and Loto-Express lotteries can be watched on the Stoloto website in real time. The broadcast is conducted from the Stoloto lottery center in Moscow, where lottery drums for drawings are installed. You can also visit the lottery center in person to see the process with your own eyes.
And for those who do not like to wait, there are quick lotteries. They take place every 15-30 minutes. Often the size of the prizes there is in no way inferior to the classic ones. For example, in the All or Nothing lottery, a jackpot of tens of millions of rubles is regularly accumulated and played out. And the jackpot in Rocketbingo as of October 2022 exceeds 73 million rubles. But you can only try your luck with online tickets.
The third version of the game is instant. It is also suitable for connoisseurs of speed, but unlike the fast one, it does not require an Internet connection. It is enough to buy a paper ticket at any point of sale, and then erase the protective layer. It has big prizes. True, draws of hundreds or thousands are more common.
How to get a win
Depends on two criteria. The first is the format of lottery tickets. If it was a coupon or an electronic ticket, then money can be received both on the Stoloto website online and at points of sale. If you purchased a printed ticket, in order to collect your winnings, you will need to contact the point of sale or the lottery center.
The second criterion is the size of the prize. There are three options here:
- If the prize is less than 15,000 rubles, the easiest way to get it is by transferring it to the Stoloto electronic wallet, from where you can withdraw money to your bank card at any time. This method only works with electronic tickets. The winnings can also be received in cash at one of the points of sale - in this case, the ticket can be both electronic and printed.
- If more than 15,000, but less than 600,000 rubles, you must definitely pass identification at one of the points of sale. After that, the winnings can be received in cash, but you need to specify the payout limit at the selected point in advance. Another option is to send documents to the Stoloto lottery center by mail and receive money to a bank account. If the ticket is electronic, then after passing the identification, the winnings can also be received online through the wallet in the Stoloto personal account.
- If the prize is more than 600,000 rubles - only by bank transfer. To do this, you need to visit the Stoloto lottery center in Moscow or go through identification at one of the points of sale and send documents by mail.