FIFA reiterates warning regarding illegal lotterie

FIFA reiterates warning regarding illegal lotterie
(FIFA.com) Friday 26 February 2010

With less than four months to the kick-off of the 2010 FIFA World Cup™ FIFA has been alerted to a growing number of e-mails and scams fraudulently claiming to be associated or linked with the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ and/or FIFA World Cup Organising Committee South Africa.

These scams generally inform recipients that they have been selected as lottery prize winners and have won substantial sums of money, or invite recipients to submit a tender. Recipients are then persuaded to:

* submit personal information or to part with money as an up front payment, or
* forward money to enable them to enter the tender process.

FIFA strongly advises the public to treat any correspondence concerning lottery draws, tenders or competitions with suspicion and extreme caution and urges people not to provide any personal or financial details if requested to do so.

FIFA reiterates that any such correspondence has no connection with or authorisation from FIFA and is in no way related to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™, following previous media releases on this topic dating back to 2005 and 2007.

All information received in South Africa should be forwarded to the South African Police Service. The relevant contact details as well as information about these scams can be found at:

http://www.saps.gov.za/org_profiles/core_function_components/commercial/419_task_team.htm.

Non-South African residents should contact their relevant local authorities.