Margie Arbon, manager of market and business development for Mail-Abuse Prevention Systems, an organisation that fights spam, says they started seeing the fraudulent e-mails on Wednesday, the day after the terrorist attacks, but that the number of them has been increasing.
Mitch Hibbs, a spokesman for the American Red Cross' Disaster Operations Center, observed that the scam isn't only cheating people out of their money, it's taking needed funds away from relief efforts. And the scam may be working because people are so desperate to lend aid to victims of the terrorist attack, that they are setting aside their cynicism when it comes to these solicitations.
Some of the fraudulent messages claim to be part of a relief fund or survivor funds, according to John Mozena, a member of CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-mail). Some messages claim to link to the Red Cross Web site but actually link to an unrelated site. Hibbs says there are a few businesses that have specific and official business ties with the Red Cross, helping them to raise money. He notes that AOL, Amazon.com and Yahoo are helping to collect donations for the Red Cross. Hibbs also says the Red Cross is considering legal action against those perpetrating the scams.
Here are a few suggestions from MAPS and CAUCE to make sure that donations actually are going to legitimate relief funds:
The official site of the Red Cross is at www.redcross.org.