Authorities raise red alert over the Olympic Lottery scam

Scammers have taken the move by Camelot to sponsor the London 2012 Olympics to come up with lottery scams targeting unsuspecting lottery players. The scammers have sent out thousands of spam emails informing the recipients that they are the lucky winners to some £800,000 by winning the London Olympics campaign.

Camelot has rolled out some legitimate Olympics themed lottery games and hence it become difficult for the recipients of the emails to be suspicious of the emails. The emails have absolutely nothing to do with Camelot nor is the lottery organized by London 2012 Olympics officials. It is however not yet confirmed if there are any victims of the malicious scam.

The message in the emails informs the recipients that they are one of the nine lucky winners of the London Olympics lottery scams. It further explains that the recipient’s email came up randomly after the draw. The recipients are asked to send their personal details for the validation of their winnings. Once the recipients reply to the email the scammers will start dealing with you personally.

This will include asking you to send an advance amount to process your winning cheque. The scammers operate in the classic style of slowly gaining your trust and once they have it, use any means possible to fleece you of your hard earned cash. In addition to defrauding you, the scammers can go further and swindle you off more money through identity theft schemes.

Below is a transcript of a London 2012 scam email

“Congratulations!

Your E-mail address is one of the 9 lucky selected winning Email Address that won in the London 2012 Olympic Campaign Promotion; you have won the sum of (£800, 000.GBP) Pounds (Eight Hundred Thousand Great British Pounds Sterling), I wish to congratulate you on this Nomination. Below are your identification numbers, kindly fill the below information’s for official Records.
REFERENCE NUMBER: UK/2012 /OLY/CAMP
BATCH NUMBER: UK/2012/153/CAMP/
SECURITY CODE: 2011/2012/8828
1. Your Full name: ………………………
2. Your Country: …………………………
3. Contact Address: ………………………
4. Telephone Number: …………………
5. Fax Number: ……………………………
6. Marital Status: …………………………
7. Occupation: ……………………………
8. Sex: ………………………………………
9. Age: ……………………………………

You are required to forward the requested details of your winning to the above office contact details, to enable us facilitate the processing of your claim.

NOTE: THE IOC (INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE) SUPPORT BARCLAYS TEAM, TO CREATE AWARENESS FOR THE UPCOMING 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES, WHICH IS SPONSORING THIS PROGRAM.

Regards.
Elizabeth Adams.
Promotion Manager
LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS PROMOTION”