Cyber Scammers Targets The Japan Tsunami Donations

Cyber Scammers Targets The Japan Tsunami Donations

After the devastating phenomenon that strike Japan last March 11, 2011 many of the people around the world wanted to reach out and help by donating money for those who have been affected by disaster.

But sad to say that in the midst of this misery comes fraudster and scam artist.

Cyber criminals are now spreading throughout the internet pretending to be the institutions that are helping the victims in Japan.

“Scammers are posing as legitimate charitable organizations, flooding email inboxes with messages asking recipients to donate money for relief efforts”,

“Criminals have also registered a large number of domains with URLs (or web links) that may fool users into thinking that they are legitimate donation or relief sites. Sometimes these websites may appear on top of web search results such as on Google”, a senior SLCERT spokesman said.

The Sri Lanka Computer Emergency Response Team (SLCERT) warns consumers to be wary of responding to donation requests for Japan’s earthquake and tsunami, through e-mails or websites.

“Users should make donations only to legitimate organizations and only through websites of those groups. The Red Cross, for example, is accepting donations on its website. Also many communities have set up their own charity programmes and so in order to ensure that donations reach the intended victims it is advisable to have Red Cross”, the SLCERT official admonished.

According to experts from the antivirus firm Trend Micro, subsequent to what happened in Japan, many websites have arise in the net posing legitimate charity, soliciting donations for the victims of quake and tsunami in Japan.

Among the institutions that are being used by cyber criminals is the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) and the Red Cross.
Cyber Scammers Targets The Japan Tsunami Donations