2010 World Cup sweepstake con

Security experts have warned of a spate of emails relating to the 2010 World Cup that could fool some recipients into giving away their bank details.

The emails have been spotted by Trend Micro and tell recipients they have won an online sweepstake relating to the football tournament due to be held in South Africa.

"Spammers are really quick on the draw in terms of their schemes," said Trend Micro's Adrian Labiano.

"They have already come up with a scam related to the South Africa FIFA World Cup which will be held a year and a half from now," he continued.

The message cheekily asks recipients to keep the details of the sweepstake a secret for "security reasons".

"The scam message even tells the recipient that they must keep the given 'winning information' confidential until they have received their prize as a precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse," said Labiano.

The emails ask you to send confidential information such as name, address, telephone number and age to a 'claim agent'.

Though the message seems to have been through a spell-checker, there are several clues that it isn't a genuine email.

"This Lottery was promoted and sponsored by some multinational companies as including Bill Gate, and some other EU governments, to promote South Africans 2010 Worldcup Award [sic]," the email reads.

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