A letter or text says your postcode won £395,000 in the Postcode Lottery — but you must pay a release fee first
Fake letters, texts, or calls claim your postcode won a large prize in the People's Postcode Lottery or a similar draw. An upfront "processing fee" of £1,000–£2,000 is demanded to release the winnings. The prize never exists; no legitimate lottery charges a fee to winners.
Also known as: fake postcode lottery letter UK, People's Postcode Lottery scam, lottery prize fee scam UK, advance fee lottery UK, fake prize notification letter, UK National Lottery scam email
Already happened to you? Do this in the next few minutes
- 1 Call your bank or card's fraud line right now. Use the number on the back of your card — not any number from the message or caller. Ask them to stop or reverse the payment and freeze the account.
- 2 If you paid by gift card, wire, or an app (Zelle, Venmo, Cash App): contact that company immediately and report it as fraud. Acting fast sometimes recovers the money.
- 3 Report to the FBI at ic3.gov and the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The sooner, the better.
What to do right now
- 1 Do not pay any upfront fee. No genuine lottery, prize draw, or sweepstake charges a winner an advance fee to receive their prize — this is the defining characteristic of the scam.
- 2 Check directly with the real organisation: for People's Postcode Lottery call 0808 10 9 10 9 or visit postcodelottery.co.uk by typing the URL yourself. For Camelot's National Lottery use national-lottery.com.
- 3 Never hand over your bank account details, passport, or debit card to claim a supposed prize by post or phone.
- 4 If you have already paid a fee and not received anything, contact your bank immediately — some payments can be recovered via chargeback or the APP reimbursement scheme if made recently.
- 5 Forward suspicious emails to [email protected].
- 6 Report to Report Fraud at https://www.reportfraud.police.uk or call 0300 123 2040.
Red flags
- ⚠ You are told you have won a prize in a lottery or draw you never entered — legitimate UK lotteries (Camelot, Postcode Lottery) only pay people who subscribed or played
- ⚠ A fee is required before you can receive your winnings — any upfront charge for admin, processing, insurance, tax, or transfer costs is a scam; no genuine lottery charges winners
- ⚠ The letter or email looks convincing but arrives at a generic address rather than a personalised one, or contains unusual details like a foreign language clause
- ⚠ A spoofed number displaying '0800 123 456' calls to 'confirm' your prize — People's Postcode Lottery uses this number but scammers spoof it
- ⚠ Urgency is created — you must claim within 24–72 hours or the prize will be forfeited
- ⚠ After paying the first fee, you are told another fee is required — this repeats; the prize never arrives