South Africa has become a criminal base for 419 international lottery fraudsters attempting to defraud people from around the world by sending unsolicited emails of false winning notices.
This was revealed by Uthingo Management Corporate Services Director Dawid Muller at the World Lottery Association Convention and Trade Show, which is taking place at the International Convention Centre in Durban this week.
Muller also released a list of lottery scam organisations that have been attempting to defraud people and found that nearly 80 percent were South African-based organisations.
But Muller, who also sits on the World Lottery Association Security and Risk Management Committee, said the perpetrators were not South African.
"They are using South African email addresses because electronic messaging is more developed in South Africa than in other parts of Africa," said Muller.
He said throughout their investigations they had only identified one South African suspect from the Eastern Cape.
Unsolicited emails would be sent to people announcing that they had won a prize in a promotional draw and instructing them to contact a claims agent.
After contacting the agent the claimants would then be asked to complete a verification form, send it back and pay a fee to cover transfer charges and handling fees.
Muller said while most people might brush the scams off, there were people who fell prey to the fraudsters and were being fleeced out of their money.
He read out an e-mail from an American woman who had to file for bankruptcy after she was fleeced of $35 000 (about R215 000) by South African-based lottery fraudsters.
Muller said that in the United States fraud to the value of $25 billion (about R150-billion) had been avoided as a result of awareness campaigns.
He said in another case, a victim received a notice of winning, complete with the original signature of former Uthingo director Humphrey Khoza and with an Uthingo letterhead.
Muller said some people who fell prey to scams did not report it because they were embarrassed, choosing to forget about the few rands they had lost.
He said the onus was on the public to be aware of these scams because police could not always dedicate time and resources to crimes that were about happen.
We have worked together with the South African Police Service and together we are closing down the sites, he said.
It was only a matter of time before these crooks would try doing this
From apartheid to lottery scams...