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Title: WARNING ABOUT SCAMS Post by Svenn on Sep 8th, 2005, 9:31am http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~3044558,00.html# :Nation: FBI puts number of Katrina-related Web sites at '2,300 and rising.' FBI puts number of Katrina-related Web sites at '2,300 and rising.' By Tom Zeller Jr. By Tom Zeller Jr. The New York Times Even as millions of Americans rally to make donations to the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Internet is brimming with scams, come-ons and opportunistic pandering related to the relief effort in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. And the scams are more varied and more numerous than in past disasters, according to law enforcement officials and online watchdog groups. Florida's attorney general has already filed a lawsuit alleging fraud against a man who mounted one of the earliest networks of Web sites katrinahelp.com, katrinadonations.com and others which purported to collect donations for victims of the storm. In Missouri, a much wider constellation of Internet sites with names like parishdonations.com and katrinafamilies.com displayed pictures of the flood-ravaged South and drives traffic to a single site, InternetDonations.org, a nonprofit entity with apparent links to white supremacist groups. The registrant of those Web sites was sued by the state of Missouri on Wednesday for violating state fundraising law and for "omitting the material fact that the ultimate company behind the defendants' Web sites supports white supremacy.' Late Wednesday afternoon, the FBI put the number of Web sites claiming to deal in Katrina information and relief some legitimate, others not at "2,300 and rising.' Dozens of suspicious sites claiming links to legitimate charities are being investigated by state and federal authorities. Also under investigation are e-mail spam campaigns using the hurricane as a hook to lure victims to give up credit card numbers to thieves, as well as phony hurricane news sites and e-mail "updates' that carry malicious code designed to hijack a victim's computer. "The numbers are still going up,' said Dan Larkin, the chief of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center in West Virginia. Larkin said that the amount of suspicious, disaster-related Web activity is higher than the number of scams seen online after last year's tsunami in Southeast Asia. "We've got a much higher volume of sites popping up,' he said. The earliest online scams began to appear within hours of Katrina's passing. "It was so fast it was amazing,' said Audri Lanford, co-director of ScamBusters.org, an Internet clearinghouse for information on various forms of online fraud. "The most interesting thing is the scope,' she said. "We do get a very good feel for the quantity of scams that are out there, and there's no question that this is huge compared to the tsunami.' By the end of last week, Lanford's group had logged dozens of Katrina-related scams and spam schemes. The frauds ranged from opportunistic marketing (one spam message offered updates on the post-hurricane situation, with a link that led to a site peddling Viagra) to messages purporting to be from victims, or families of victims. "This letter is in request for any help that you can give,' reads one crude message that was widely distributed online. "My brother and his family have lost everything they have and come to live with me while they looks for a new job.' Several anti-virus software companies have warned of e-mail "hurricane news updates' that actually lure users to Web sites capable of infecting computers with a virus that allows hackers to gain control of their machines. And numerous scammers have seeded the Internet with e-mail phishing messages that purport to be from real relief agencies, taking recipients to what appear to be legitimate Web sites, where credit card information is collected from unwitting victims who think they are donating to the cause. On Sunday, the Internet security company Websense issued an alert regarding a phishing campaign that lured users to a Web site hosted in Brazil and was designed to look like a page operated by the Red Cross. Users who submitted their credit card numbers, expiration dates, and PIN numbers via the Web form were then redirected to the legitimate Red Cross Web site, making the ruse difficult to detect. The security company Sophos warned of a similar phishing campaign on Monday. "They're tugging at people's heartstrings,' said Tom Mazur, a spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service. Mazur indicated that there were "a number of instances that we're looking into with this type of fraud, both domestically and overseas,' but he would not provide specifics. Svenn http://www.websensesecuritylabs.com/alerts/alert.php?AlertID=275 |
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Title: Re: WARNING ABOUT SCAMS Post by cootie on Sep 8th, 2005, 2:27pm Disasters sure can bring out the evil in people.......seems there are so many more ways to decieve the good that comes out of people that just want to do nothing but help in any way they can. It's a black and white world.......yeah and yoooo Pam The more bad I see and hear the sicker I get......really disgusts me.......I'm ready to move to a deserted Island and start the human race all over again. Just me and my cats !!! Bad people suck !!! |
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Title: Re: WARNING ABOUT SCAMS Post by jcmquix on Sep 8th, 2005, 2:30pm I know what you mean, now we are having people check us out through our church, before they will donate anything.. not just cash.... I don't mind we had alot of post out for donations.... So thats ok... I just wish we could EXPLODE these people running scams.... Hurts Everyone.... God Bless Charlie |
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Title: Re: WARNING ABOUT SCAMS Post by Charlie on Sep 8th, 2005, 4:02pm Thanks Svenn. I read that article this morning when I finally caught up on my reading. What a world. It's not new at all but so much faster these days. http://www.netsync.net/users/charlies/gifs/bad vibes.png Charlie |
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