WARNINGS have been issued over scam letters informing people that they have won thousands of pounds in a World Cup lottery.

York resident Simon Proctor recently received a letter telling him he had won £725,000 in a World Cup lottery.

He said his suspicions were immediately aroused, not least because he had never bought a ticket for the lottery which claims to be an International FIFA World Cup Online Lottery.

A FIFA spokesman said the supposed lottery had "no connection whatsoever with, or authorisation from, FIFA", adding: “FIFA advises people not to respond or provide any personal information to the contacts listed in the e-mails/letters.”

A spokesman for York trading standards department said that if people received correspondence out of the blue, saying they had won money, they should be suspicious.

“When it looks too good to be true, it probably is,” he said.

“Our advice is to never reveal any personal information.

“Legitimate organisations will never ask for things like bank account details or PINs."

The letter sent to Mr Proctor said that the lottery was designed and promoted by the European Lottery and Commonwealth Bank of Australia to promote the 2018 FIFA World Cup and Tokyo Olympic games.

Warnings about similar letters being sent to residents nationally were issued as long ago as 2014 by Suffolk Trading Standards, after ‘winners’ were told they had won £500,000 in the “International FIFA World Cup Online Lottery.”