Return-Path: <sentto-279987-3302-1003849281-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com> Delivered-To: fc@all.net Received: from 204.181.12.215 [204.181.12.215] by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.7.4) for fc@localhost (single-drop); Tue, 23 Oct 2001 08:04:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: (qmail 19123 invoked by uid 510); 23 Oct 2001 15:00:50 -0000 Received: from n30.groups.yahoo.com (216.115.96.80) by 204.181.12.215 with SMTP; 23 Oct 2001 15:00:50 -0000 X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-3302-1003849281-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com Received: from [10.1.4.56] by n30.groups.yahoo.com with NNFMP; 23 Oct 2001 15:01:21 -0000 X-Sender: fc@red.all.net X-Apparently-To: iwar@onelist.com Received: (EGP: mail-8_0_0_1); 23 Oct 2001 15:01:20 -0000 Received: (qmail 81872 invoked from network); 23 Oct 2001 15:01:20 -0000 Received: from unknown (10.1.10.26) by l10.egroups.com with QMQP; 23 Oct 2001 15:01:20 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO red.all.net) (65.0.156.78) by mta1 with SMTP; 23 Oct 2001 15:01:20 -0000 Received: (from fc@localhost) by red.all.net (8.11.2/8.11.2) id f9NF1fK20729 for iwar@onelist.com; Tue, 23 Oct 2001 08:01:41 -0700 Message-Id: <200110231501.f9NF1fK20729@red.all.net> To: iwar@onelist.com (Information Warfare Mailing List) Organization: I'm not allowed to say X-Mailer: don't even ask X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL3] From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net> X-Yahoo-Profile: fcallnet Mailing-List: list iwar@yahoogroups.com; contact iwar-owner@yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@yahoogroups.com Precedence: bulk List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:iwar-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com> Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 08:01:41 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: iwar@yahoogroups.com Subject: [iwar] [fc:E-Mail.Scam.Preys.on.Relief.Donors] Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit E-Mail Scam Preys on Relief Donors By Jacqueline L Salmon, Washington Post, 10/22/2001 <a href="http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171343.html">http://www.newsbytes.com/news/01/171343.html> The subject line of the e-mail pleads, "Your support is needed." When the message is opened, a window with the familiar logo of the Red Cross and photos of wide-eyed children pop up. It appears to be a donation request from the three largest fundraisers for the Sept. 11 terrorism relief effort: the American Red Cross, the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust. "Your contribution will be used to help respond to the immediate and long-term needs of the victims," the form reads. "Please, donate now." Contributors are asked to type in their name, address, credit card number and other personal information and to send the form on to its digitized charitable destination. It's easy. It's also a scam. None of the big three - the Red Cross, the United Way or the New York Community Trust - is soliciting Sept. 11 funds via e-mail, officials have confirmed, nor are they receiving any money contributed in such a manner. Rather, the e-mails sent to an unknown number of recipients in recent days are the latest Web scam, using the Internet to illegally carve off a chunk of the hundreds of millions of dollars that Americans and others have been pouring into various Sept. 11 relief funds. More than $1 billion has been collected by bona fide organizations, perhaps as much as a fourth of it through online giving, officials say. In the aftermath of the terrorist assaults, a slew of Web sites popped up seeking contributions to causes that include the families of dead or injured firefighters, children orphaned by the tragedy and pets left homeless. Some were legitimate appeals, others were not - and recipients were often left on their own to figure out which was the case. The latest bogus appeal came to the attention of Red Cross officials Thursday morning, when their online security company alerted them to it. Calls started coming in from puzzled recipients of the e-mail wondering whether it was for real. "It's extremely deceptive," said Phil Zepeda, director of online media for the Red Cross, "and it preys on innocent people looking to make a very significant donation to national disaster relief, which is sad." Point-and-click giving has taken off since the Sept. 11 disaster. Donors like not having to write a check and hunt for a stamp or take the time to call a hot line number and give over the telephone. Many charities and other nonprofit groups like online giving because it's fast, easy and inexpensive. They don't have to set up lavish fundraising events. They can reduce their dependence on telemarketers and their dinnertime pitches. And they may not have to invest in direct-mail letters, which in these anthrax-anxious times may never be opened. Online donating even got a boost from President Bush, who shortly after the attacks urged Americans to do their donating at the Web site libertyunites.org, a joint venture of AOL Time Warner, Amazon.com, Cisco Systems and other high-tech organizations. The results have been astounding, organizers say. The site reports that it has received $104 million. Overall estimates vary, but online contributions appear to account for 15 percent to 25 percent of the more than $1 billion given to the relief effort, according to fundraisers and others who study philanthropy. The Red Cross says $60 million of the $450 million it has received has come via the Internet. The day of the attacks, almost 250,000 users swamped the organization's Web site at redcross.org - compared with about 21,000 on a normal day - nearly shutting it down. The United Way has received at least $12 million online, while the ePhilanthropy Foundation counts at least $124.8 million in donations from an estimated 575,000 people since Sept. 11. The AOL Time Warner Foundation - which is funneling credit card donations to charities registered on its helping.org Web site - estimates that online giving has soared from 2 percent of its total before the events of Sept. 11 to 16 percent now. Small organizations have noticed a similar spike. Before Sept. 11, firefighters in Tacoma, Wash., were pulling in moderate online contributions on their site at firedonations.com, which went up in July. But since Sept. 11, when Yahoo linked to the site, more than $6 million has gushed in. Kathy Bushkin, president of the AOL Time Warner Foundation, thinks the trend will result in "a new generation of donors" - younger and suddenly more interested in philanthropic endeavors. "People who were motivated to be generous now have learned how easy it is," she said. Everyone agrees that Sept. 11 was the turning point for online giving. Before this year, the most that any one charity had raised online was $2.7 million, which occurred in 1999 in response to the Kosovo refugee crisis, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. "People had to get comfortable with the concept, and this crisis has pushed folks over the hump," said Elizabeth Boris, director of the Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. But the recent scams are revealing the dark side of online giving. As easy as it is for donors to proffer money over the Internet, it's just as easy for scam artists to set up fake Web sites and e-mail messages to lure donors. The Internet Fraud Complaint Center, a joint venture of the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, has received thousands of complaints about possibly fraudulent online appeals, said a spokeswoman, who added that the FBI is investigating. She declined to give details. The scams worry those who support online donating. "We've been working so hard to establish online giving as a credible way for people to support organizations," said Theodore R. Hart, chief executive of the ePhilanthropy Foundation. "Those who are intent on defrauding the public are no less despicable than the terrorists that have hit our country." The Internet Fraud Complaint Center recommends that donors obtain Web site addresses separately instead of linking to them from e-mail messages. Web sites such as give.org list nonprofit organizations that have been approved by the Internal Revenue Service. If in doubt, organizers suggest contacting the charity by telephone. If donors suspect fraud, they should contact their credit card company. ------------------ http://all.net/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : 2001-12-31 20:59:56 PST