Beware of donation scams for relief efforts

With the recent earthquake in Haiti, my thoughts instantly went to the friends I have known over the years who were from Haiti. Thank goodness for Facebook is all I can say! I was able to send prayers and well wishes to my friends that I haven’t seen in at least fifteen years and keep up with what was happening to them and their families. Social engines not only are helping to keep friends and family in the know, to get information out almost instantly, but also they are helping in fundraising efforts.
Americans are giving as much as they can to help the efforts in Haiti. The ”texting” donations drive was introduced and has been a hugely successful operation. But of course, I instantly was thinking about how cybercriminals would use this catastrophe to cash in… and so was McAfee Labs. Craig Schmugar wrote a really interesting blog called “Went Looking for IE Exploits in “Haiti”, Found Something Else”.
What I love about this blog is that he shows in screen shots exactly how criminals set up a scam using Google Trends, a fake website, Digg, and Google’s ad network to generate revenue. If you have time, check out the full blog so you can see all of the screen shots – it really hits home how (continue reading...)