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New York (CNN/Money) - There are now some 2,300 Web sites
advertising Hurricane Katrina relief services, and most of them are presumed to
be bogus, the FBI said Friday.
In addition, scammers are four times more prevalent than after
the tsunami disaster, according to the watchdog site www.Scambusters.org.
Scams include:
- Phishing: In this scheme scamsters use fake Web
sites that pretend to be legitimate relief organizations. If
you click on the site and enter credit card or other financial
information, it will be used to steal your identity. Any contributions
you make go into the pockets of the scammers.
- Viruses and trojans: Spam is sent that includes
photos of disaster areas or individual survivors, and these
attachments contain computer viruses. These can enable hackers
to take control of your computer and obtain information that
they can use for identity theft.
- Fee-based spams: These are unsolicited e-mails
that offer, for a fee, to locate missing relatives and loved
ones caught in the hurricane
Don't let yourself get scammed.
The Justice Department, which has established a Hurricane
Katrina Fraud Task Force to focus on phony charities, identity
theft, insurance scams and government benefit fraud, recommends
going directly to recognized charities and aid organizations'
Web sites, as opposed to following a link to another site.
Some useful tips:
You can also follow these tips from the Better Business Bureau's Wise Giving
Alliance to make sure your contribution goes to the people who need it.
1) Do not give cash. Make out checks to the organization, not to the person
soliciting the contribution.
2) If you are asked to donate money to an organization that you are not familiar
with, you can check a variety of sources before sending any money – such as the
Federal Trade Commission,
the Better Business Bureau's Wise
Giving Alliance, the Internal Revenue Service's list
of organizations eligible to receive tax-deductible charitable contributions,
your state attorney general or your local
charity registration office.
Or go to http://www.give.org/reports/index.asp
and click on the Wise Giving Alliances reports on individual charities soliciting
for Katrina relief. This will show what percentage of the funds each of these
charities receives that normally goes to the actual cause.
3) Don't respond to e-mail requests. Legitimate charities do not use e-mail
to solicit new contributors. ScamBusters says the chance that an e-mail request
for a contribution is from a legitimate charity is near zero.
4) Don't feel pressured to give more than you feel comfortable with. Legitimate
charities will accept and be grateful with whatever you choose to contribute.
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