PEOPLE in Burton and South Derbyshire are being warned of an email scam claiming to involve the Olympics and National Lottery.
Concerned residents contacted the Mail after emails dropped into their inboxes claiming that they had won £1 million as part of a joint promotion between the two organisations.
But Olympic organisers and the National Lottery have moved quickly to warn people this is a scam and should not respond in any way.
Stretton resident Bill Pritchard said: “I thought it bizarre how people can be taken in by these scam letters with cases all the time being featured in the paper.
“But it just looked so genuine and I also do the lottery regularly.
“Because I have seen so many of these scam cases I thought it wise to check it out before I tried to claim the £1 million.”
The scam asks people to provide a variety of personal information including name, address, bank account details and a copy of their passport.
A spokesman for the Olympics added: “We are aware of cases where emails are sent falsely claiming to be from London 2012, or other organisations involved in the Games, but that are actually the first step in a fraud scam.
“They typically encourage the recipient to reveal information such as bank details or to part with money as an up-front payment in order to release a prize.
“London 2012 will only ever use a secure website to collect personal or bank card details.
Look for a padlock symbol in the browser window.
“The website address will begin with ‘https://’. If you click on the padlock, your browser will either give our full title (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Ltd), or identify our sites as part of london2012.com.
“If you don’t see a padlock, or if the site name is not what you are expecting, then you should not enter personal or financial information into the page.”
Anyone with concerns about fraudulent emails or websites should visit www.met.police.uk/fraudalert/