In its alert, the FBI warned people to "verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group's existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site."
The FBI also warned for people making donations of any kind that they should adhere to the following additional guidelines:
- do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
- be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
- be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
- make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
- do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.
Scammers have already registered hundreds of domain names with AP
reporting that "more than 400 Internet addresses related to Haiti have
been registered since Monday's devastating quake, Internet security
expert Joel Esler said. The names reference Haiti and words such as
'earthquake,' ''help,' ''aid,' ''victims' and 'survivors.'"
The report notes that while many of the domain names will be
legitimate, there will also be many that are not with many websites
featuring "a 'donate' button but either the money will never go to the
relief fund or they will just harvest your credit card number for use
later," Esler told AP.
To read the FBI Haitian earthquake relief fraud alert, see:
www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel10/earthquake011310.htm