A computer programmer tried to snatch a 33.05 million yuan (US$4.84 million) lottery prize by hacking into a lottery center's computer system in south China's Guangdong Province.

Shenzhen City police grabbed the hacker, surnamed Cheng, when he went to claim the prize on June 12.

Shenzhen Welfare Lottery Center workers had detected anomalies in the computer system after the lottery results were revealed on June 9. There were nine winning numbers instead of the four expected. Investigations showed that the extra five numbers, all sold in Shenzhen, were fake.

Police confirmed the computer system had been hacked.

Police caught Cheng when he came to the lottery center on June 12 to claim the prize of 33.05 million yuan for the five fake numbers.

The lottery center recalculated the jackpot for the four legitimate winners and increased the prizes from 6.61 million yuan to 8.62 million yuan.

Cheng is a software engineer with a technology company which worked with the Shenzhen lottery center, police said. He used Trojan Horse programs to attack the center's computer system and inserted his five winning numbers.

(Shanghai Daily July 9, 2009)