Specialists Caution about Recent Japan Disaster Related Junk E-Mails

In the wake of the lethal Tsunami, which hit Japan with an earthquake of a 8.9 intensity on the Richter scale on March 11, 2011, the SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC) has stated that Internet-users must remain vigilant of a separate type of Tsunami: spam mails and fake websites seeking to convert mass inquisitiveness of the incidence into illegal profits. Threatpost published this on March 11, 2011.

Sadly, similar to any critical problem, which draws worldwide attention, Internet fraudsters may in their malicious act, craft their own fake charity websites for profiting from users urging to help.

The ISC, on March 11, 2011, posted an alert online stating that users might get scam e-mails about the latest quake in Japan. Further, several donation scams might emerge, exploiting people's goodness as also readiness for assisting those in distress.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State in Washington too is advising everybody for being watchful about scammers during ongoing work for aiding the Tsunami victims affected with the biggest-ever recorded earthquake in Japan.

Stated Sam Reed the Secretary of State, the U.S. government recommended netizens that they should verify prior to donating via finding out about the charities that requested to donate money, adding that the government didn't desire fraudsters to take advantage of the tragedy. TDN.com published this on March 11, 2011.

Earlier, a large number of junk e-mails were circulated after the Tsunami of January 2005 hit Indonesia's Aceh region. At that time, many scams were responsible that invited charities to help Tsunami victims, while the charities were actually a fake. Thus, according to the ISC, people wishing to assist must send their donations to the already existing organizations instead of any established in the wake of a particular incident.

Moreover, security companies too suggest certain precautionary measures for avoiding spam. These are: netizens mustn't give cash, while make every money-order and check out to none other than the charitable organization. Furthremore, after donating the money, donors must secure an acknowledgement in writing from the organization. And finally, no Web-surfer must reveal personal information or his debit/credit card details while replying to an electronic mail asking for donations.

Related article: SophosLabs Discovers phishing Scam Against ANZ Bank

» SPAMfighter News - 3/22/2011