In the US, especially in the 90’s, there were a lot promotional mailers, TV ads, and so on to prey on people’s desperation and ignorance that were sent out that would say that the person has “a chance to win $1M!” or “may have already won!”
Of course, I’ve never heard of anyone who actually won anything from them. It was probably just a data collection thing or asking people to send $20 to enter the fake lottery, I’m not sure. But, I have to admit, I did join a lot of those because I was a kid and I thought it’d be fun or easy and my dad would humor me by going through the process—or, at least, pretend that he did. We never won anything though.
I’m still trying to figure it out.It’s haunting.