The newest scam hitting the age of technology is the online lottery or sweepstake fraud and it continues to increase its devastation.

The fraud ring targets primarily the elderly, offering false hope of financial relief in an attempt to gain personal information and assume that identity. The elderly are considered prime targets due to their lack of exposure to these crimes, their apathy to such current issues, and their typically religious and trusting look on humanity.

These scams escalate upon opening and responding to e-mails sent from the predators that are followed by a series of return e-mails and possible phone calls where the victim gradually offers personal information believing it will make them the winner of a large lottery purse. This form of identity theft gives the fraud ring the necessary information to perform many illegal activities all being traced back to the victim resulting with incredible damage. Each year, victims forfeit $8 to 10 million to these fraud rings.

The Minnesota Department of Public Safety's Division of Alcohol and Gambling Enforcement has teamed up with Johnson Group to strategically design an impactful campaign that will bring the increased awareness to this fight against this growing trend of online crime.

Johnson Group led the effort to help educate victims and to warn others by implementing an unique and targeted awareness campaign that would be featured in advertisements, internet advertising placement, brochures, and table tents among other mediums. The campaign was designed for placement in a number of key locations to bring awareness to this growing problem and to guide possible and existing victims to the proper resources to help them through such a personal and difficult situation.

The campaign was an overwhelming success and the MN Dept. of Public Safety saw an enormous increase of inquiries and reported cases - the number of e-mails per week went from a sparse few to over 500 and their phones lit up with incoming calls increasing at a pace of over 300%.