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L.N. Revathy

Physical disasters now trigger attempts at cybercrime. Avoid trouble.

HOW would you react if you got a message that read: "Please donate just $100 to help give food and medical treatment to two million forced immigrants, 500,000 homeless and 33,000 victims of the South Asian tsunami" - wouldn't you be willing to help out?

Beware! Identity thieves have set up fake Web sites, replete with pictures of tsunami victims and news accounts of relief efforts that are meant to trick would-be donors into providing their credit card information.

E-mail scammers send out pleas for help from phony survivors, invading recipients' computers and stealing financial and other information from those who click on links in the documents. But with memories still fresh of the estimated $4 million in scams wrought against charities and government agencies after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the FBI and other law enforcement organisations say they are determined to stanch the flow of tsunami relief money to con artists in these early days — before the problem gets out of hand.

But the request for the $100 donation happens to be an e-mail hoax from Nigeria that impersonated a Singapore charity in order to collect money. Numerous victims provided their personal information in exchange for a promised 20 per cent of the funds.

Internet site Fraudaid.com, which tracks fraud schemes, has compiled a list of five phony e-mail solicitations that have been sent to users worldwide. In one, a sender who calls himself Muslimman Muslimman says he lost his home in Aceh province in Indonesia and asks for donations. Investigators traced the e-mail to an Internet service provider in the US.

Another solicitation illegally sported the logo of the American Red Cross and read: "You can help — every penny counts. Click here to donate on line." That letter, Fraudaid.com said, originated in Romania and travelled through Germany to get to the US. Such cases continue to pop up around the world, including in Canada, Australia, the US, England, Singapore and China.

Trend Micro has cautioned donors about using search engines to find relief organisations. Citing an instance of a person using the search engine to locate the China Charity Federation's Web site, Trend Micro sources pointed out that the organisation's actual Web site was www.chinacharity.cn, whereas the surfer found www.chinacharity.cn.net (an additional .net was present).

Online crime, according to Trend Micro, is another form of social engineering trap, similar to those that use sex or profit to lure victims.

Nigerian criminal code, the `419' scam has circulated for years through snail mail, fax, and e-mail. It has become so prevalent that even the US Secret Service refers to it as the Nigerian Advance Fee Fraud. It has dedicated an entire section on its Financial Crimes Division page. It calls the crime a `growing epidemic.'

The hoax e-mail has many variants. All appear to have been sent by a deposed African official or a relative of one. The e-mail messages ask its recipients for assistance in transferring or handling a sizable sum of money, offering a corresponding share for such service. This scam e-mail has victimised many individuals. Some have gone to the extent of parting with millions of dollars and their personal safety. It has, however, become too prevalent, making this serious crime almost laughable. Some victims, however, still find it hard to believe that they have been duped.

In addition to deceiving through the use of large-scale spamming, viruses could also be planted in related news Web sites to embed Trojan viruses in the computers of visitors. According to Internet Crime Complaint Center statistics, the Nigerian scam was listed among the top ten online scams, and could be considered the major scam of 2004. Countless imitation scams followed, spreading throughout the world.

Recently an e-mail claiming to be from a rich businessman dying of esophageal cancer appeared with the subject "How you can be of help to tsunami victims." The body of the text includes a lengthy letter, explaining how the author contracted cancer and will not live long, and is willing to donate his $1.2 billion located in a European bank to the victims of the tsunami. The letter continues, saying "I will want you to assist me transfer this deposit into your bank account and dispatch it to tsunami victims. Please kindly contact me through my private email address below."

Trend Micro reminds the public not to make contact as requested if they receive this email; not only will they not receive their `service fee,' but might also see their own savings washed away.

According to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG)'s latest report, online phishing scams grew 28 per cent over the last four months. Most of these originated from America and Asia. Combining social engineering with Trojan programs, these scams are difficult to identify by the average user. In order to help charitable users from falling victim to these traps, Trend Micro gives the following tips:

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