Foreign Lottery Scams in Luxembourg
Fraudsters target Luxembourg residents with fabricated EuroMillions and EU fund lottery prizes that require upfront fee payments to release.
Part of: Foreign Lottery Scams
Last reviewed: 1 June 2026
Luxembourg's affluent multilingual population is targeted by foreign lottery scams in French, German, English, and Luxembourgish. Prize notifications claim the recipient has won a large sum from EuroMillions — a lottery Luxembourg genuinely participates in — or from a fabricated 'EU Residents Lottery' that exploits the country's deep EU institutional identity.
Luxembourg's high concentration of EU civil servants and financial professionals makes the EU institutional lottery framing particularly effective, as many residents have a natural trust of EU-branded communications.
How this scam works on Luxembourg
An email or letter arrives congratulating the recipient on a large EuroMillions or EU prize. A prize-claims agent contact is provided; correspondence results in fees being requested for 'tax clearance', 'courier security bond', or 'EU compliance certificate'. Each payment generates a new requirement.
Some operations impersonate EuroMillions' actual Luxembourg lottery partner (Loterie Nationale) with convincing documentation. Others fabricate EU institutional letterheads — European Commission, European Parliament — to support the fraud narrative.
Luxembourg's significant Portuguese-speaking community is also targeted with Portuguese-language variants mimicking the Euromilhões lottery.
Common red flags
- A prize notification arrives for a lottery you never entered.
- Any fee must be paid before the prize can be released.
- EU institutional branding appears on unofficial-looking communications.
- The prize agent communicates via a free email account rather than an official domain.
- Multiple fees are requested as each previous payment fails to unlock the prize.
How to protect yourself
- Delete prize notifications for lotteries or EU programmes you never entered.
- Verify any claimed EuroMillions win directly through the Loterie Nationale Luxembourg.
- The EU does not run resident lottery programmes — any such claim is fraudulent.
- Never pay fees to claim any prize.
- Report suspicious communications to the Luxembourg Consumer Protection Authority.
How to report it
- Report to Luxembourg Police and the Direction générale de la consommation.
- Notify the Loterie Nationale if their branding is being misused.
- Contact the European Commission fraud reporting portal if EU branding is impersonated.
Frequently asked questions
Does EuroMillions notify winners unsolicited?
No. EuroMillions winners are identified only when they check their own ticket numbers against official results. There is no unsolicited prize notification process — any such notification is fraudulent.