Cyber Criminals Use Haiti’s Tragedy to Swindle More Money
Nothing can stop cyber criminals of finding new ways to deceive people in order to get their money. FBI has made an announcement to warn people of the scam emails where people are asked to donate for those who have suffered from the earthquake in Haiti. The catastrophe caused hundreds of deaths and damage to the country’s infrastructure, so there’s no surprise many people want to support Haitians by donating money.
At this time people should be extremely careful about whom they are making contributions to. In their press release FBI is asking to donate directly to known organizations and not to trust the unknown ones to ensure the money goes to the right place.
Scam emails are already circulating on the Internet. One of the examples is a fake British Red Cross e-mail. They use a real London address of the organization, however, the contact e-mail for British Red Cross is wrong. Every single donation sent according to the instructions of this letter would reach some cybercriminals, but not Haitians.
Sending e-mails for donations is not the only way cybercriminals are trying to earn money from Haiti’s tragedy. The other thing is making people visit websites that are harmful in terms of getting infected with spyware. Currently there are plenty of websites created by the scammers that provide information related to the earthquake in Haiti. The scammers also use new techniques to get their pages in first places when doing a search. Once a computer user gets there, he is redirected to other sites supporting fake antivirus programs. Then various pop up ads and security notifications trick people into purchasing one or another program.
Be extremely careful when it comes to financial donations so that your contribution really reaches the ones you want to. And always be vigilant when it comes to your computer security.
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