The scam involves people being sent a junk email telling them they have won the 'London 2012 Olympic Lottery'

The 2012 Olympic Games has been hit by a hoax email which tells recipients they have won an Olympic lottery.

Under the scam, recipients of the junk email are told they are winners of the ‘London 2012 Olympic Lottery’, and needs to contact an agent to claim prize money.

The spammers have used the original London 2012 logo along with an Olympic logo. They have also embedded the International Olympic Committee’s weblink.

Security experts have said that the current scam, like other spam emails, is a bid to obtain personal data. Security researchers at Trend Micro told the website spamfighter.com that the sum of money given as the lottery prize is relatively small to convince the recipient it is plausible that he has won it.

The hoax is the latest example of the Olympics falling victim to spam. The 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing was hit by a similar trick, where emails promised lottery winnings and a tour of the Olympics.

Topics