Identity Theft News

Scammers ride aftershocks of Haiti catastrophe

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning to those who want to contribute to earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, saying that cyber criminals and other types of scam artists are trying to take advantage of an outpouring of humanitarian support.

The Bureau says that consumers should be particularly wary of spam abuse, and should under no circumstances click on the links contained in unsolicited messages. Prospective makers of charitable donations should give directly to organizations that they are familiar with, "rather than relying on others to make the donation on [their] behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes."

SC magazine concurs with the FBI's analysis, saying that natural disasters and other headline-dominating events like celebrity deaths offer opportunities to scam artists, who can capitalize on widespread news coverage to perform black-hat SEO attacks and phishing campaigns.

SC reports that domain registrar GoDaddy.com has registered 250 domains related to the Haiti disaster, and that some of them are bound to be used to collect fake donations or other fraudulent activity.ADNFCR-1765-ID-19558968-ADNFCR

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