Lottery winners go public, why oh why oh why oh why?????

Question

What on earth would posess anyone to go public, am I missing something here, do they offer these people a couple of mill extra or something???
Don't they realise that every nutter in the country will be harrassing them for ever more?

Answer 1

Because before when they were poor they were nobodys - now they have money they think people care and want to know them - when really we dont give a T O S S

Answer 2

They have too when they win the lottery they are required to go public

Q: If I win the jackpot, do I have the option of remaining anonymous?
A: No. The Arizona Lottery is required to release, upon request, the winner’s name, city of residence, game, and amount won. A press release will be sent out to the media when a winner has collected the prize. However, Arizona Lottery jackpot winners are given the option of participating in or declining a press conference and/or publicity. We believe a press conference enhances the winning experience, and it usually eliminates receiving multiple calls from the media.

Answer 3

I would keep my mouth shut and find a good attorney. But, it is one of the rules- advertising you could call it. Did you see those Powerball caps they put on the elderly family that just won?? If I had to come forward, I would still live in the same town, and drive the same car, maybe wear holey sweatpants with an old GnR shirt. I'd use coupons and eat at Taco Bell a lot. I would volunteer with the elderly because they don't want anything from you but your time- which I'd have plenty of.

Answer 4

Like it or not: it is usually a part of the conditions of winning. That your name and likeness be used in ads and given out to the medias. Once you win the media will be all over you. It sells papers, magazines and the like. Basically everyone wants a part of the action. Before you claim the prize: set up a safety net, change phone numbers and get a legal representative to guide you through the ordeal. Oh yea, winning is exciting but the "sharks" come after.

Answer 5

Actually, it is part of the rules. You agree to going public if you want your winnings! The Lottery needs to show people winning in order to promote ticket sales.

Go public...then disappear!!

Answer 6

I think it's part of the whole deal that they have to go public for publicity for the lottery.

I'm sure they likely change their names and relocate after that.

Wow you sure have ridiculously large jackpots in the USA. Could have had 250 new millionaires with that last jackpot.

PS we get to keep all ours and it's tax free.

Answer 7

100% scam. There is no lottery. There is no Yahoo, Facebook, Nokia, Shell, BBC, Google, Coca-Cola, MSN, Microsoft, BMW or any other company in the entire world that sponsors a lottery that notifies winners via email, phone call or text. There is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned money. The scammer only wanted your name, address and phone number because he believes if you send such data, you believe his scam. The scammer will use your email address to send more scammy spammy emails and call you to try and convince you to send your cash, that is all. The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email addresses pretending to be the "lottery official" and will demand you pay for made-up fees and taxes, in cash, and only by Western Union or moneygram. Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money gone forever. Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker' list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram. You could post up the email address and the emails themselves that the scammer is using, it will help make your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when looking for information. Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash. Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses, names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer. If you google "fake yahoo lottery", "lotto Western Union fraud" or something similar, you will find hundreds of posts of victims and near-victims of this type of scam.

Answer 8

Ironically, they have to be as thick as two short planks to think they are in with a chance of winning in the first place... so I guess the answer is that lottery winners are very lucky but also uncommonly stupid.

Answer 9

Maybe the don't themselves but there is always someone who will leak it to the papers
I think when people start splashing out you know they have either won the lottery or robbed a bank

Answer 10

I agree, but maybe the excitement makes them do it 'cos they are so happy that they don't care at the time, they want to tell everyone. Personally I would love to have the opportunity to decide for myself not to go public.