Many of us have seen the heart-wrenching scenes from the world’s latest natural disaster, in Haiti, and want to help.
Unfortunately, there are some who would take advantage of the situation, and people’s charitable nature, and put fraudulent requests for money online. As Linda McGlasson over at the Bank Info Security blog said ‘there Is a special place in hell’ for people like this.
Let’s hope so, because the sad, awful truth of it is that Symantec is reporting this morning that they have already seen spam fraudulently claiming to be from the Red Cross, soliciting donations for Haitian Earthquake relief funds. There have been sporadic reports of fraudulent tweets on Twitter, and some Google search results have been skewed in an attempt to divert people to malware and phishing sites.
To be safe, check the list of charities at www.whitehouse.gov
If you are in Canada, the Canadian government is matching private donations – you can find more information here.
If you are in another country, check out your federal government’s or local newspapers’ websites to find out where best to send funds.
Lastly, and most importantly, don’t let these bad actors scare you off from doing the right thing. Please donate generously, if for no other reason than to prove the world is a better place than they make it out to be.
By the way, please feel free to repost or tweet this article.
