The American Red Cross and e-mail advocacy groups are warning of
on-line scams in the guise of soliciting donations for victims of
this week's terrorist attacks. The scams are taking the form of
spam, or unsolicited bulk e-mail, and postings in on-line forums,
asking for donations either in the name of the victims or
specifically for the American Red Cross.
Margie Arbon, manager of market and business development for
Mail-Abuse Prevention Systems, an organisation that fights spam,
says they started seeing the fraudulent e-mails on Wednesday, the
day after the terrorist attacks, but that the number of them has
been increasing.
Mitch Hibbs, a spokesman for the American Red Cross' Disaster
Operations Center, observed that the scam isn't only cheating
people out of their money, it's taking needed funds away from
relief efforts. And the scam may be working because people are so
desperate to lend aid to victims of the terrorist attack, that they
are setting aside their cynicism when it comes to these
solicitations.
Some of the fraudulent messages claim to be part of a relief
fund or survivor funds, according to John Mozena, a member of CAUCE
(Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Some messages
claim to link to the Red Cross Web site but actually link to an
unrelated site. Hibbs says there are a few businesses that have
specific and official business ties with the Red Cross, helping
them to raise money. He notes that AOL, Amazon.com and Yahoo are
helping to collect donations for the Red Cross. Hibbs also says the
Red Cross is considering legal action against those perpetrating
the scams.
Here are a few suggestions from MAPS and CAUCE to make sure that
donations actually are going to legitimate relief funds:
- Go specifically to the Web site of the organisation you want to
donate to. The Red Cross's Web site is: www.redcross.org. If you
don't know the organisation or the person who solicited you, stay
away from it.
- Keep in mind that generally, no legitimate relief organisation
solicits for donations through bulk e-mail.
- If you do click on any link to make a donation, examine the URL
shown in the browser to make sure you are where you think you
are.
The official site of the Red Cross is at www.redcross.org.
