Lottery issues fraud alert

Iowa Lottery officials have issued a “fraud alert” to anyone who plays Powerball and has an e-mail account. Lottery spokeswoman Mary Neubauer says a new spam-scam is being sent around that looks real as it includes the Powerball name, logo and a hyperlink to an old Powerball web page.Neubauer says the e-mails are programmed to look like they’re legitimate but they aren’t. The messages claim “you have already won the Powerball” and may ask for personal data and financial information to complete the alleged big-money transaction. Neubauer says with a little common-sense, people should be able to deduce that’s just not a smart thing to do — nor is it plausible.Neubauer says “The lottery doesn’t know that you have won a prize until you bring the ticket in and present it to us. So, even though we know that a winning ticket has been sold, we don’t know that you are the person who bought it.” For more information, consult “www.ialottery.com”.