Tragedy in Japan Sparks Scams

As is the usual, tragic events that make worldwide attention always seem to bring with them scams from soulless criminals looking to cash in on the devastation of others. The earthquake, tsunami, and now Fukushima events in Japan are proving to be no different. Emails circulating yesterday and today are claiming to come from the British Red Cross and are attempting to gather money from people whose intentions are to help the victims of Japan. Unfortunately anyone who donates to these will become victims themselves. The emails give brief news tidbits of the catastrophes and claim that "The Japanese Red Cross has agreed to accept donations from the UK". They also offer a way to "donate" to their cause via a Moneybookers account which is a cash intermediary site that brokers money deals through the internet similar to PayPal. People can apply money towards a person's account and that person can nearly anonymously retrieve the money without much of a trace. These emails offer a yahoo email address to which to donate. This should be a big red flag to those who are watching out as any legitimate charity would use an email address at their own domain, not to mention that they would also more likely steer you to their site via a secure connection through which to make any donations. That is if they were to spam out requests for donations in the first place. Keep a level head and research any and all charities before handing over your money. For those who are interested in helping out, here is the real Red Cross here or here.

AppRiver will continue to do our part and keep these from reaching your inboxes.