Is There a Prize Hidden in Your Email? How to Spot Winning Notifications

Many sweepstakes notify winners by email. After all, email is more convenient than a telephone call and costs less than using the postal service or a delivery service like UPS. However, email win notifications are easy to overlook. It's easy to throw away a legitimate win notification because it looks like junk.

However, if you keep these five signs of a win notification in mind, you'll be far less likely to miss out on a legitimate prize!

5 Signs You Have a Real Winning Email

The first thing you'll want to do when checking your email is to scan your inbox for signs that you've received a prize notification. Here's what you should look for:

1. "Congratulations" in a Subject Line

These are usually the easiest email win notices to recognize. They have a nice, clear subject line that tells you that you're a winner. Here's an example of an actual winning email:

"Congratulations on winning the HARO Twitter Party Giveaway!"

If you receive an email like that, you'll definitely want to check it out.

Before you get too excited, however, keep in mind that many companies use the word "congratulations" for other reasons, like indicating that you have successfully entered or joined a mailing list — a pet peeve among many sweepers.

2. The Subject Contains the Name of a Giveaway

Many winning emails have the name of the giveaway in the subject line. Here's an example of a real email win notification:

Dickies 500 Race for the Riches Sweepstakes

Because these win notifications don't say you're a winner, it's easy to mistake them for a simple entry confirmation. To avoid this, open every piece of email with a sweepstakes name in the subject line and take a quick look.

3. "Fulfillment@" in the Sender Line

Many big sweepstakes companies send their emails from a "fulfillment" email address. For example, here's one you'd definitely want to open:

"Sender: fulfillment@helloworld.com"

Of course, scammers can also use email addresses that follow this pattern. Be sure to always consider the warning signs of sweepstakes scams before responding to any win notification.

4. The Sender Contains a Name

Some companies send win notifications directly from their employees' email addresses. So an email from an address that uses a personal name is worth a good look, especially if the subject line also seems promising.

5..The Sender Includes a Company Name You Recognize

If you remember entering a giveaway and you receive an email from that company, it's worth checking it out. It might be a confirmation or a newsletter, but you don't want to take the risk of overlooking a prize notification.

Note that none of these are foolproof; you'll still need to investigate to see if you are really a winner, but if you see these in your inbox, you'll want to take a closer look to prevent overlooking a legit win.

Take a Deeper Look for Sweepstakes Wins:

You don't want to stop once you've checked the most obvious signs of a win notification. Instead, there are a few additional steps to take to find notifications with subject lines and senders that you would never expect. Some tips for finding these camouflaged wins include:

Use an Email Address Dedicated to Entering Sweepstakes:

Having a dedicated email address for sweepstakes makes checking through your emails for prize notifications quicker and easier.

When in Doubt, Check It Out

If you're new to entering sweepstakes, you should open every email that you're not sure isn't a prize notification.

Wins are sometimes mentioned casually at the end of regular-looking newsletters, and notifications can sound like spam at a first glance

It only takes a few seconds to open those questionable emails, and taking that time could prevent you from overlooking legitimate wins.

Don't Overlook Your Spam Filter

Many filters consider any mail that contains words like "sweepstakes," "win," "congratulations," or "prize" to be spam, so they automatically move those emails to your spam filter.

This means that if you're not careful, you might never get the chance to see those five hot signs mentioned above.

Turn off your spam filter or check it regularly to make sure no legit win notifications have been sent there.

Unsubscribe from Newsletters You Don't Want

The fewer unwanted newsletters you receive in your sweepstakes inbox, the more quickly you'll be able to spot prize wins. Find out how to unsubscribe without jeopardizing prize wins.

You might also want to consider subscribing to newsletters you do want to receive with your regular email address so that your dedicated sweepstakes address is easier to review.

Bad Signs: Scams and Junk Mail

Just as there are telltale signs that you might be a potential winner, there are also signs that you have a scam or a junk mail on your hands. Here are some warning signs to look out for:

• The email doesn't mention your name.
• The email doesn't mention the sweepstakes' name, or you don't remember entering a giveaway with the name they use and can't find any legitimate-sounding sweepstakes with that name with an internet search.
• You're being asked for money, or bank account/credit card numbers (read 5 Things That Aren't Signs of Sweepstakes Scams to see what sensitive information is normal to share after you win).
• You're being told you have won an international lottery, such as the Heineken Lottery.
• The email is full of typos, misspellings, and/or bad grammar.
• Read about the Warning Signs of Sweepstakes Scams for more.

Hopefully, these tips will help you find any email you receive that contains a prize notification. Remember that most notifications have deadlines to respond, so be sure that you don't let more than a day or two pass without checking your sweepstakes email address!