Audio & Video
Business Center
Cameras
Cell Phones & PDAs
Desktop PCs
Gadgets
Gaming
HDTV
Laptops
Macs & iPods
Monitors
Printers
Software
Spyware & Security
Storage
Upgrading
Windows Vista & XP
Resource Centers
Asus Notebook Center
Intel Technology Center
CDW Solution Center
Lenovo Laptop Showcase
Try It Free
White Paper Library
Webcast Library
Most Popular Products
Most Popular Downloads
Friday, September 02, 2005 5:09 PM PT Posted by Andrew Brandt
Katrina Disaster Inspires Scammers & Spammers
As more news of the massive devastation along the gulf coast trickles out of the disaster area, some of the stories of individual heroism and personal tragedy can be quite moving. But just as happened after the Asian tsunami early this year, there are opportunists out there waiting to pounce on people whose generosity and sympathy for the disaster victims inspires them to donate money to worthy causes.Already, there are spam email messages circulating offering items for sale for disaster preparedness, like a solar powered radio. While that's a good thing to have, it's a bad idea to buy anything that's spamvertised. You know you can buy those kinds of things elsewhere, so why would you want to support a spammer's business by buying anything advertised in a spam email. That's just silly.
So far, I've heard about a few general categories of disaster-related scams, but I'm sure this is just the tip of the iceberg.
The first general category of scam is the "spam appeal," a mass mailing that includes a link to donate money to a worthy cause. Sometimes these come in the form of a solicitation to donate money to a known organization with a link to a "donation page" -- the page, of course, simply sends your payment information to the scammers.
I've also seen at least one of the classic "Nigerian 419"-type scam, sent to me by the folks behind the OnlyMyEmail spam filtering service.
This particular version of the well-known and oft-parodied scam (where someone pretends that they need your help to transfer a large sum of money from one place to another, and asks for your bank account information to do this) implores for your help to transfer $26 million "provided that you are an HONEST PERSON for the work of charity" (sic).
Even more troubling are the email messages that lead you to download malware. Both OnlyMyEmail and F-Secure report that they've seen an email with a couple of lines of text from a news story about the Katrina disaster efforts, with a link to read more. When you clicked the link (as of this morning--the site is now shut down), the site that loaded tried to install the Phel Trojan horse program on your computer using a browser security exploit.
It's hard to believe that someone could wake up in the morning and think "hey, this huge disaster and massive loss of life is a great opportunity for me to make a pile of money in scams" but that's exactly what seems to be happening.
These people disgust me.
But not all the email that looks like a scam is actually a scam. Yesterday I noted that the American Red Cross was redirecting site visitors to pages on the Web site of its fundraising partner, Convio, when you clicked the Donate Now button on the Red Cross homepage. This was probably done to help alleviate the heavy load on the Red Cross Web servers, but it made more than a few people suspicious, and they dropped me a note about it.
This is a sensible thing to worry about, especially when you consider how some malware can diddle with your Hosts file to force your computer to go to a fraudster's Web site. That kind of scam is, as the script kiddies say, OFN, but as more people become aware of Hosts file hacking and the other devious tricks malware can pull, people are understandably getting a bit paranoid about anything that looks out of the ordinary.
It seems that Convio is on the up-and-up, and you shouldn't worry about it if you notice the Red Cross site redirect you to the Convio donation page. However, even as I wrote this blog entry, I noticed that the Red Cross page is now redirecting to https://give.redcross.org, which should alleviate the confusion.
Archives
View posts from:
PC World's Marketplace
PC World's Free Whitepapers
QUICK LINKS:
cheap laptops
cell phones
laser printers
HDTV reviews
LCD TV Plasmas
digital cameras
laptop reviews
security antivirus
windows vista reviews
digital camera reviews
inexpensive desktop
LCD wide screen monitors
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
tech news tech blogs community & forums laptop prices software reviews downloads
That is ashaming. A very depressing time for citizens down south and still, some people decide to be destructive and commit crimes like what happened with the hurricane was a joke and it means nothing. Those spamming losers should be paying for the destruction down there.
Seize their assets and give it to the masses (in need). Hey, if AOL can do it, can't all the other ISPs even try? I'm not saying AOL's the best; it sucks, but that was a... thoughtful move on its part.
Utterly disgusting! Have these people got no morals at all? If caught spammers deserved to pay a heavy penalty along with a lengthy prison sentence.
This is sad and scammers are pretty bad for those who think that a hurricane that hit New Orelans is a joke but it's not a joke.
The investigators will have to track down scammers/spammers and once they find a trace of a spammer/scammer, will have their house raided by FBI and get the computers seized.
I didn't mean to be harsh but we've got to prevent this from happening when a disaster strikes again.
Moral outrage is fine, but calling for FBI raids upon trace evidence of a spam/scam is a bit much. While deplorable and criminal, one must temper one's reactions to such incidents with the same caution one should always apply to incidents where the law and "immoral intent" intersect. For example, if your teenage daughter, enthusiastic about getting canned food, bottled water, and wearable clothes for evacuees, wrote up a poorly-conceived email request for said items and without an inkling of malice or any idea what kind of infrastructure is required to get just a few tons of relief aide to those in need and then cc'ed it to your home business' contacts list late one night, how would you like to be awakened at 6:00am the next morning by gun-wielding, black-coated, obscenity-shouting FBI agents, all full of righteous indignation and moral outrage? Or worse yet, to try to defend yourself and your family in court against such charges when sentiments are running hot and high against "you and your kind?"
Don't get me wrong, I despise the inbox bloat and the idiots who encourage spammers by actually buying something advertised this way, and those that would attempt to take advantage of disaster relief efforts deserve a special place in hell, but as one of those founding father dudes said "'Tis better for ten guilty men to go free than for one innocent man to spend a day behind bars..."
Or something like that.....
In any case, there is no way that we can or have to prevent this from happening when a disaster strikes again without liberally trampling on the civil rights of everyone. Some justice is best left to faith, trust that it will be handled justly by the Supreme judge of judges. ;)
Now the Iraqi war, which has been more detrimental to the relief efforts than a whole county of dedicated spammers could ever be, IS a moral outrage that we've got to prevent from happening when a disaster strikes again, affects far more people in far more places, and is even more criminal than the above-mentioned yet rather paltry internet spam/scam crimes.
Let's face it, if all the manpower and equipment wasn't being squandred on that criminal and murderous action, conceived and sold to us with more lies and malicious intent than the worst Viagra-shilling, farmgirl porn pandering spammer alive, there would be no crisis in New Orleans save the one Mother Nature laid on us.
All in all, the genocidal and illegal Iraqi war is a much fairer and appropriate place for one's moral outrage and righteous indignation. And better still, the punishment for that crime should rightly be public hanging of all those involved in the treasonous planning, covert set-ups, and reckless authorization of this premeditated international terrorism. I think we would all feel quite justifiably satisfied should that unlikely justice come to pass. ;)
spammers are scum plain and simple, they should be forced to drink the water in the streets of New Orelans
as for the con artists out there shoot them
maybe extreme measures like this will "get er done"
I think that when the spammers/scammers are caught and taken in they should do 1000 hours of community service and help some of the hurricane victums who are in need.
I think that when the spammers/scammers are caught and taken in they should do 1000 hours of community service and help some of the hurricane victims who are in need.
THats just Pathetic- how dare they take food from the mouths of innocent people, just so they can line their pockets with filthy blood money. It's pathetic, and sad what they're doing to those poor families.