The FIFA World Cup will take place this year in South Africa and will probably be the most watched sports event on the planet. In 2006 an estimated 715.1 million people viewed the World Cup which was held in Germany. All of the matches of the 2010 games are expected to be sold out and football fans from around the world will descend on South Africa this June and July. Unfortunately the demand for tickets has prompted scammers to take advantage of World Cup fever. A new series of emails are making the rounds telling the gullible they have won several million dollars in the "World Cup Lottery.’ Basically this is a variation on the old and well known 419 advance fee scam.

One email titled "The South African 2010 World Cup Bid International Lottery" has been making the rounds of email inboxes around the world. There are several features of this particular email that are clear indications of a typical lottery scam. The first and most obvious clue is that no legitimate lottery will notify winners via email. The scammers will tell their victims that there email address was selected by ‘computer email draw’ or a ‘computer ballot system.’ Put bluntly there is no such thing as a random email ballot system. The spelling, syntax and misspellings in the emails are another clear indication of a typical lottery scam. These emails are obviously written by persons not well versed in the English language and most people in South Africa use English as a primary language.

Another indication that the World Cup ‘lottery’ is a scam is the use of free email accounts. Check out the official UK National Lottery website or any other official lottery website and you will see that official lottery websites never use free email accounts. Asking the lottery ‘winner’ to keep their big win confidential is probably the most obvious indication of a lottery scam. Lotteries love publicity and encourage big winners to come forward to claim their winnings and to talk to the media. And finally, no legitimate lottery notifies winners by email—ever!

You may wonder just where the scammers got your email address. The answer is simple; scammers harvest email addresses from websites you may have visited such as blogs, comments on public forums or any other websites that are publicly accessible. Scammers use rogue programs to search the internet for email addresses. Cyber criminals also sell email lists to spammers and scammers. Protect yourself from scammers and enjoy the greatest sporting event in the world—the 2010 World Cup!