FBI warns of online scams associated with tsunami

• XT outage may affect Telecom earnings
• OOXML not suitable for Norwegian government, says study
• IP addresses dwindle as economies recover
• Routing fault pushes NZ ISPs out of Limelight
• NZ IT sector hiring plans show upward trend

 

• Companies are wasting less money on ERP
• Live within your means
• Is Skype safe for business?
• Slapped in the face
• Why watching 'Lost' is like managing ERP

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Computerworld is New Zealand's only specialised information systems fortnightly.

Subscribe now for $97.50 (24 issues) and save more than 37% off the cover price!

NEWSLETTERS

Get the latest news from Computerworld delivered via email.
Sign up now

NEWSFEED

Subscribe to Computerworld's
RSS newsfeed here and get news stories as they break.

• SAN and NAS virtualisation boosts availability
• FryUp: Classic tune mangled for ISP ad
• ERP systems prove their worth in financial crisis
• FryUp: Social media down the plughole
• Feature: Integrating the supercity
• Towards Virtualisation 2.0

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned of a variety of online scams asking users to send money for the victims of the recent tsunami disaster.

Complaints about the scams have come into the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Centre.

The FBI said the IC3 has received reports of websites being set up allegedly to assist with collection and relief efforts for the victims of the December 26 disaster. Some of the schemes being used by the scam sites involve unsolicited email asking for monetary donations. Another involves a fraudulent relief donation site that contains an embedded Trojan exploit that can infect computers with a virus.

And some users who have posted messages and email addresses on the web looking for missing loved ones say they have been contacted by people offering to help them for a fee.

The FBI said it would be "aggressively pursuing those who would attempt to victimise philanthropic individuals." It declined to provide specific examples of the scams to Computerworld, however.

In its statement, the agency offered advice for those wishing to help victims of the tsunami:

• Do not respond to any unsolicited spam regarding the disaster.
• Be skeptical of individuals claiming to be surviving victims or foreign government officials asking for help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
• To ensure that contributions to US-based nonprofit organisations are used correctly, go directly to the websites of recognised charities and aid organisations, rather than following a link to another site.
• Attempt to verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilising various internet-based resources to confirm the existence of the organisation as well as its nonprofit status.
• Be leery of email that claims to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, since the files may contain viruses.