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.