Scammers Abound in Wake of Katrina

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, VRWC wanted to remind you that whenever there is a major natural or other disaster, scammers begin sending out charity relief scams within just a couple of hours!

With all of the devastation, we are already seeing many kinds of scams specific to Hurricane Katrina:

1.) Chain letters:
According to Anne Mitchell, aka Aunty Spam, the first
email hoax was a request to forward the hoax because
fifty cents would supposedly be donated to help victims
for every copy of the email forwarded. You can read
about this hoax here.

2.) Phishing scams:
According to the Washington Post, a number of fraudulent
websites have already been set up pretending to be legitimate
Hurricane Katrina relief organizations. These sites request
charitable donations, but in fact steal financial information
and may be used for identity theft as well. Contributions,
of course, go into the pockets of the scammers rather than
to help people who desperately need it.
3.) Misleading emails trying to take advantage
of the disaster to sell unrelated products:

Here's an example of an email that was just trying to sell Viagra:

--- Begin scam email --- "Subject: Re: 80 percent of our city
underwater."

True, this seems harmless to most, but the escalation of the idea is
where the damage comes into play. As the acceptance of false promise
is present, it must be viewed as fraudulent, as the next step may be
false advertising, and then verbal promises to victims or refugees, then
actually taking money from those same victims/refugees, and so on. Remember, . . . . we must be able to SPELL the word SECURITY, before we begin to DEFINE it.

4.) Investment and security scams:
According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
(SEC), emails are already making the rounds that tout
specific stocks on the basis of activity related to Hurricane
Katrina.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said Tuesday that Hurricane Katrina killed as many as 80 people in his state and burst levees in Louisiana flooded New Orleans. (Those numbers have since been revised, upward)

Just before daybreak Tuesday, Katrina, now a tropical storm, was 35 miles northeast of Tupelo, Miss., moving north-northeast with winds of 50 mph.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center said the amount of rainfall had been adjusted downward Monday.

For example, one email says that investors could more than double their money in just days on certain penny stocks because of "refinery glitches."

Although we haven't yet seen the following Hurricane Katrina scams, we are certain that they will become prevalent very shortly:

- Variants of the Nigerian fee scam: unsolicited email (spam)
is sent with the supposed purpose of retrieving large amounts
of money tied up in areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina.
- Viruses and trojans: Spam is sent that includes photos of
disaster areas or individual survivors, and these attachments
contain computer viruses.
- Fee-based spam: unsolicited emails offer, for a fee, to locate
loved ones who may be disaster victims.

How to Avoid Getting Scammed
Here are the four most important things you can do:

1.) Always use common sense.
2.) Never respond to an email request for a donation - there
is almost a 100% chance that it is a scam. (The only exception
is that we hear that the American Red Cross does occasionally
use email to solicit prior contributors. So if you have previously
contributed to the American Red Cross, there is a small chance
that a donation request email you receive may be legitimate.)
In any case, NEVER click on a link in the email. Instead, type
in the URL of the organization you wish to donate to. (See the
resources below for a list.)

3.) Check to make sure any charity is legitimate before
contributing. You can read about how to do this on our page
on charity scams.

4.) Do not open attachments (including supposed pictures of disaster
areas) -- they may well include viruses.

How You Can Help
The United States Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has compiled a list of reputable voluntary organizations that urgently need cash donations to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina in Gulf Coast states.

http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease_print.fema?id=18473

FEMA also warns, though, that volunteers should not report "self-dispatch" to the affected areas -- it is important that volunteers be directed so that they don't become part of the problem.

FYI, we have again contributed to the American Red Cross via Amazon. (You can click on the Red Cross Hurricane Relief Button.)

Finally on a personal note, VRWC wants to extend our heartfelt thoughts and prayers out to everyone impacted by Hurricane Katrina.

God Bless,
Dan'L