South Africans are being targeted more and more by lottery scammers
August 17, 2009 by admin
Filed under Lottery News
As the 2010 FIFA World Cup draws closer South Africans are being targeted more and more by lottery scammers. South Africans are receiving bogus lottery win emails in the run up to next years World Cup and a special police task force has been created to attempt to crack down on these scams.
These scam emails have the South African national lottery operator, Gidani’s official letterhead and logo on them appearing to be official and most of them ask recipients to provide their personal details, including bank account information, in order to claim the prize money. Gidani have been quick to distance themselves from the scam emails and have called for an urgent investigation into the origin of the emails. Gidani spokeswoman Thembi Tulwana said “Gidani is the only company licensed to operate the national lottery in South Africa”. She continued by stating “The only way to play the lottery in this country is by purchasing a ticket from an accredited national lottery outlet.”
The police force in South Africa has warned that as the FIFA World Cup gets nearer the number of these lottery scams claiming to be affiliated with the event will increase. In the meantime anyone who receives one of these emails is being urged to forward them to a specialised task force set up to deal with the increasing number of such lottery scams.
Lottery news like this has been circulating across the world for years now but due to the high-profile World Cup next year South Africans seem to be getting inundated with them. To avoid such scams yourself just remember never reply to emails asking for your personal details. Better still, just buy tickets for lotteries right here at Online-Lotto then you will know which lotteries you have played, and you can’t expect to be a lottery winner without playing it. So if you do receive an email telling you that you’ve won a lottery that you haven’t played, it may well be a scam.
