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Scam artists are posing as tsunami victims on the Internet in a bid to divert some of the millions of dollars flowing to relief efforts, security experts warned on Wednesday, according to a Reuters article.
Crudely written appeals for help have begun to appear in e-mail inboxes, asking for donations through a Web site or an offshore bank account, the analysts said.
"It's only a matter of time before ... we have fully fledged Web sites that spoof well-known charities, for example," said a spokesperson for Internet security company MessageLabs.
The fraudulent appeals are patterned after two existing scams: phishing attacks that direct people to legitimate-looking Web sites in order to trick them into giving up their credit card numbers, and 419 scams, messages that promise great riches in exchange for a bank account number.
Crudely written appeals for help have begun to appear in e-mail inboxes, asking for donations through a Web site or an offshore bank account, the analysts said.
"It's only a matter of time before ... we have fully fledged Web sites that spoof well-known charities, for example," said a spokesperson for Internet security company MessageLabs.
The fraudulent appeals are patterned after two existing scams: phishing attacks that direct people to legitimate-looking Web sites in order to trick them into giving up their credit card numbers, and 419 scams, messages that promise great riches in exchange for a bank account number.