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Tsunami Relief Scams

In a scam that very closely resembles the famous Nigerian E-mail Scams, people are preying on the good-natured people that want to help the victims of this terrible disaster.

Have you ever heard of Marco Nula? It seems that poor Marco's parents were killed in the December 26 Tsunami disaster, or so he would have you believe. To make matters worse, Marco claims that he is having trouble getting $3 million out of his deceased father's bank in the Netherlands.

In a scam that very closely resembles the famous Nigerian E-mail Scams, people are preying on the good-natured people that want to help the victims of this terrible disaster. This e-mail scam showed up only one week after the tsunami rocked Indonesia and is an example of just how opportunistic scammers can be.

Spammers in general like to strike while the iron is hot. The 9/11 disaster had many scams associated with it as well. These scams are designed to persuade people to start out by sending small sums of cash to "help" a person in need. After the scam victim sends a little money, the person will need more due to unforeseen circumstances that will surely arise. Bureaucracy is a terrible thing, and if you get sucked into one of these scams you will find out just how bad it really is! Of course, people think that if they keep sending money, they will eventually get their money back. Nothing, however, could be more wrong.

Here are some other scams, related to the tsunami disaster, that have been popping up on the internet and in people's e-mail boxes:

• According to the FBI they've received information on Web sites that claim to assist with collection and relief efforts to aid survivors of the natural disaster. However, the reality is these sites are bogus. They steal money and/or personal information from unsuspecting donors and/or spread computer viruses to unsuspecting visitors to their site.
  
  
• Working in conjunction with the FBI, the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) has received numerous complaints and recognized several conspiracies including e-mails that offer, for a fee, to locate loved ones who remain missing.
  
  
• Unsolicited e-mails requesting that money be deposited in overseas banks to support the tsunami relief effort have also been reported to the FBI, as well as SPAM messages that ask for personal or financial information in an effort to retrieve large amounts of inheritance funds tied up in relation to the tsunami.
• Spontaneous e-mails asking for money to be deposited in banking institutions overseas to support the tsunami relief effort are running rampant. In addition to these unasked for e-mails, SPAM messages demanding personal or financial information so that large amounts of inheritance funds tied up in relation to the tsunami can be retrieved are also occurring.

Unfortunately, scams like this and the Nigerian E-mail scam continue to exist for one simple reason - they work. The reason the scams work is because in addition to preying on good-hearted people, they also appeal to people's greed. People who want to get rich quick are very vulnerable to scams like this.

Here are some useful tips for people who want to give to legitimate charitable causes without being victimized by scammers:

• Never respond to any spontaneous SPAM e-mails.
• Be cynical of people professing to be surviving victims or foreign government officials asking for assistance in putting large sums of money in overseas banking institutions.
• Only open attachments in email messages from people you know. Be cautious of e-mails with pictures of the disaster areas in attached files, as these files could contain computer viruses.
• Never send money to phone solicitors representing charities that you have never heard of. If you want to make a donation to a cause such as relief for the tsunami victims, make it through a well-known relief organization such as World Vision or the American Red Cross.
• Beware of charities with names similar to those to well-known charities. A good way to make sure that a charity is real is to look it up in the phone book or even on the internet. A legitimate charity will have tax status to match its non-profit business structure. When in doubt, investigate.
• Do not, under any circumstance, give your credit card information to unknown charities over the telephone or to door-to-door solicitors. If you call a well-known charity on your own it is okay to give out the information.
• If a charity wants to send a courier to pick up the donation you can bet that they are scammers. Please note that allowing this also presents a security risk to you at your residence.

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