The personal webmail account of the Executive Director of the Gambia National Olympic Committee, George Gomez, has been broken into by fraudsters, Observer Sports can reveal.

The hackers sent out emails that claimed to be from Mr Gomez, claiming that he was stranded in Nigeria and in desperate need of £2450 (two thousand, four hundred and fifty pounds) to settle his expenses and get a flight home. Scores of Mr Gomez’s close associates in The Gambia and abroad received the bogus plea-for-assistance emails.

The emails were sent from his Hotmail account and claimed that Gomez had lost his wallet whilst in the West African country promoting a charity called Empowering Youth to Fight Racism, HIV/AIDS, Poverty and Lack of Education. Gomez, who was shocked by the fraudsters’ actions, told Observer Sports that he has received numerous calls from friends in the country and abroad asking if he was really in Nigeria needing £2450. “I have gotten calls from friends asking if it is true that I was stranded in Nigeria needing money. I am really surprised and shocked by the act,” he told Observer Sports in a telephone interview yesterday.

“I knew my account was hacked because I have not been able to access my emails for the past four days. I even called the Unique Solutions technician to come and help me access my account but nothing worked. So I had to open another account.” Gomez revealed that the fraudsters may not have succeeded in getting people to cough up money, but lamented that the damage had already been done. “They may not have succeeded in getting people to send money, but I have already lost the account with a lot of valuable information including my contacts and account of the new book I was just about to launch,” he concluded.