How do I find out if an email is legitimate or a scam?

I have recently recieved a couple of emails stating that I have won the lottery

How do I find out if an email is legitimate or a scam?
yes you have won the lotto and know you have won a prize from me!





Send me the your account details and i will pop $500,000 dollars into your account every day for the next year only. at which time you have the choice of $1,000,000 lump sum into this account or if you give me the account numbers of 10 people i will give you $2,000,000.





Congratulations, keep up the good work!
Reply:If it's an unsolicited e-mail from someone you don't know it's a scam. If someone reputable is trying to find you they will get your phone number and address easier than an e-mail address.
Reply:If you didn't enter the lottery, you can't win it.
Reply:if its not from someone you know and trust, dont open it, just delete it
Reply:Those are generally scams. Copy the first sentence of the email you got and paste into the search bar at WWW.Google.com. See how many others won the exact same thing you did. There are also joke programs out there that says you won a lottery in this state etc. Your friends are usually the culprit of those.





I hope this helps, good luck
Reply:Simple, they are scams. Lotteries don't notify by email.
Reply:Any email for any Lottery is a scam. Here is a recent article put out be Microsoft about the Microsoft Lottery.





http://blogs.msdn.com/securitytipstalk/a...
Reply:If its in a spam filter its a scam only look at ones you know!.
Reply:100% scam
Reply:i have never heard of the lottery notifying by email. think about it. did you enter the lottery and did they inform you that you will be notified by email?
Reply:if u randomly selected to win from emails it's a scam, they are so common and rampant, if u ever need further information on online email scams http://scamsbeware.com is a good resource center to help you stay informed, best wishes.
Reply:Did you play the lottery?......


Did you give them your E-mail address when you played?.....


NO !!....


Then it's a scam.
Reply:All most 100% scams. Forward the emails to the National Lottery and they'll see if they are real or not. Do you seriosuly think they'd email to say you have won?
Reply:It's a scam.





Best way is to think back to see if you've entered any lotteries. If you haven't, chances are you haven't won one!
Reply:Its a scam