By Art Holliday
St. Louis (KSDK) - If you get an email trying to convince you it's official London Olympics correspondence, think before you click. It could be someone trying to rip you off.
As Olympic fever grows, scammers are working overtime to steal your money and private information. Olympic organizers and the Better Business Bureau say don't get careless online.
The London Olympics website contains a warning to watch out for fake emails claiming to be from "London 2012."
Common scam emails are disguised as lottery and sweepstakes promotions. They claim to offer cash prizes in exchange for personal details that could lead to identity theft.
Olympic officials advise consumers to pay for tickets and memorabilia only on secure sites with a padlock icon. The St. Louis BBB says the international scope of the Olympics makes the event attractive to the scammers trying to rip you off.
"This event is worldwide, which means every scammer across the world realizes that there are potential victims who know the Olympics and might just be tricked into doing something via the internet that they wouldn't normally do," said Chris Thetford with the Better Business Bureau.
Olympic organizers say they have identified over 120 different scams so far. They want consumers to be careful about doing online Olympic business, or opening suspicious Olympic email.
KSDK