The North Caroline Lottery is issuing a warning about lottery ticket scams. The NC scam includes being called up and asked to shell out more money to claim a lottery prize.

Some recent lottery winners reported being contacted by callers who said they were from the NC Education Lottery. The callers told players they had won additional prizes, later asking players to buy prepaid debit cards and provide the numbers to them before obtaining these lottery prizes.

No legitimate lottery asks winners who win a prize to pay money up front to receive it.  And once you buy your lottery ticket, no additional money is required from you to claim a prize that you win.

$5.7 million in lottery tickets were sold across the state NC on Thursday. N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper urged consumers to be careful and said his office is available to provide assistance.

"Anyone who promises you've won a prize but demands money before you can claim it is trying to rip you off," Cooper said. "Don't take the bait, and report lottery and other prize scams to my office."

NC will also have customer service representatives and security officials who are here to help lottery players with any questions they have about the lottery games.

Lottery scams, unfortunately, are all too common, but they can easily be avoided with a little common sense.

 People across NC were lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday for their chance at striking it filthy rich. Mini-marts across the state are setting up two separate lines for customers; one for lottery fanatics, and one for everyone else.

So be careful when you buy a ticket and don't pay one cent more than the face value of the ticket after you purchase it. There are plenty of useful tools online to make sure these scams don't affect you.