The Michigan Lottery is warning the public to be aware of scam artists telling people they’ve won a big lottery prize but need to pay a fee to collect it.

The Michigan Lottery processes all prize claims for free. And players must have a valid winning ticket to claim a prize.  If you haven’t bought a Lottery ticket, there’s no way you could win a prize.

To check if a lottery prize, offer or promotion is legitimate, members of the public may contact the Lottery’s Public Relations Division at (517) 373-1237 or via email at milottery@michigan.gov.

The lottery prize scam surfaces from time to time and has been known to pop up around the holidays.

The scam works like this:  A person gets a letter, email or phone call to inform them that they’ve won a big lottery prize but must pay a fee to collect the prize.  If the person agrees, the scam artist convinces them to mail a cashier’s check, make an electronic funds transfer, or even arranges a meeting to get the money in cash.

In some cases, after getting money from the victim, the scam artist comes back asking for more for unexpected processing costs or fees or uses some other excuse to try to get more money from the victim.

Unfortunately, the more money the victim supplies, the longer the scam will continue.

If you believe you have been the victim of such a scam, please contact your local law enforcement agency.