Haiti Earthquake Landslide

The recent earthquake disaster that struck Haiti is sometimes unbearable to watch. With an estimate of 80,000 death and rising or 200,000 according to Haitian government. The damages sum up to billion of dollars. It is indeed a disaster that melts your heart in pity.

More than 5 years ago, a colossal disaster hit Indonesia and other parts of the world with an earthquake in the Indian ocean that caused huge and deadly tsunamis in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Africa, and other countries. All of these sad stories easily spread out the Internet, including heart-touching pictures.

These stories always touch the heart of many. And this is exactly what bad guys take advantage of. In a previous post about Phishing, we’ve uncovered how it works. This is what these scammers is going to use again to exploit vulnerable people. So again, BEWARE of these scam emails asking for donations to help Haiti Earthquake victims. They can appear legitimate but always ensure that you do not click on any link they provide.

Example below is a capture from McAfee’s blog of what could be a similar scam email to lure to donating money to them. This one is from a French origin.

Haiti Scam email

Last week the United States FBI released an immediate warning and reminder to Internet users to be very diligent and apply critical eyes in responding to emails asking for donations of the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. I’ve outlined below with their guidelines:

“Before making a donation of any kind, consumers should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:

Anyone who has received an e-mail referencing the above information or anyone who may have been a victim of this or a similar incident should notify the IC3 via www.ic3.gov.”

Protect yourself against scammers!