An alleged Lebaneselottery scammerwho is said to have
conned thousands around the world has been arrested in
Cyprus.
The man is alleged to have stolen around £5m from web users
after tricking them into believing they had won the lottery.
The man has been the subject of an Interpol investigation over
the past two years, and was arrested at Cyprus's Larnaca airport
last week as he attempted to leave the island.
The lottery scam victims are said to have received e-mails that
stated that they had won the lottery and requested confidential and
financial information to prove their identities, as well as money
for processing fees.
Lottery
scams are widespread, and the confidential data taken from
victims can be used to commit identity theft and drain bank
accounts.
"We are seeing more and more scammers arrested worldwide, as
they continue to defraud many thousands of victims with their
phoney e-mails, it is high time these crooks paid the price for
their greed," said Carole Theriault, senior security consultant at
web security software firm Sophos.