Brussels, 14/02/2006 (Agence Europe) - OLAF warned in a press release of 13 February that impostors have used the OLAF logo in order to extort money from bank account holders by means of fake requests for payment. The perpetrators send fake OLAF letters to individuals accusing them, for example, of having made irregular bank transfers and thus violating money-laundering legislation. They then make a request for payment. At least one British citizen has received such a letter bearing an OLAF logo and a fake OLAF address. The person in question immediately alerted the European Commission services in Brussels, explained OLAF Deputy Spokesperson, Jorg Wojahn, in an AFP news flash. The Spokesperson also explained that he only knew about a single case but did not rule out the possibility that other letters of this kind could have been sent out. This is the first time that OLAF has been the targeted in this kind of fraud. In its press release OLAF advises not to follow any such requests without verifying their origin and calls on the recipients of such letters to report any similar suspicious situations to the police.