Newsday Sept 14, 2001
Mayor Warns of Scammers Seeking Donations for
Victims
New York City police and state officials were
pursuing reports Friday of a scam
in which donations are being sought by telephone,
purportedly to aid victims
and families of Tuesday’s terrorist attack.
“We’d really like to catch them and make an example
of them,” Mayor Rudolph
Giuliani said Friday. The same is true of people
who have been phoning in bomb
threats to city authorities since Tuesday’s attack,
Giuliani said.
The mayor said one scam artist seemed to be
targeting the elderly in seeking
donations.
"We are unaware of any legitimate group which is
soliciting funds,” said Gov.
George Pataki. He added that several funds have
been set up to accept
donations in the wake of the disaster.
The state Consumer Protection Board is checking
into the report, spokesman
Jon Sorensen said.
The report comes as relief efforts statewide are
receiving huge responses to
calls for help.
-- Anonymous, September 14, 2001
There's also this, received from CAUCE Tuesday night:
==========
CAUCE NEWS
Volume 5, Number 1
September, 2001
In this issue:
* Email groups warn of terrorism-related scams online
IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHY YOU GOT THIS MESSAGE: Please see the
"About This Message" section at the end.
---------------------------------------------------------------
* Email groups warn of terrorism-related scams online
SAN FRANCISCO -- September 12, 2001 -- Email protection and consumer
advocacy groups warned today of online attempts to fraudulently
profit from yesterday's attacks on the USA. These attempts are taking
the form of unsolicited e-mail ("spam") and postings in community
forums, soliciting "donations" in the name of victims of the attacks.
A typical message claims to be part of an "Express Relief Fund" or
"Victims Survivor Fund". One message claims that donations will go to
the Red Cross, but the donation link leads to a Web site unconnected
with that organization.
The Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email (CAUCE) and
SpamCon Foundation offer these tips to help determine whether a
request is valid:
* If you don't know the organization or person who sent the request,
it's probably fraudulent.
* Virtually no bona-fide relief agencies request funds by sending
email to people who are not already involved in that agency.
Solicitations made in this way may also violate laws in the United
States and Europe. (See http://law.spamcon.org.)
* If you click on a link to donate, examine the URL shown in your
browser. If the domain name of the URL is hidden, unfamiliar, or
doesn't match the link's text, the request is probably fraudulent.
* Verify the solicitor's identity through another medium (such as
phone) before giving money. Spammers frequently forge the identity
and style of well-known entities to gain credibility.
"WTC spams" appeared within an hour of the World Trade Center
disaster. Some, while not fraudulent, made light of the event. One
spam promised, "No terrorists here! Join our porn site, turn off the
TV, quit watching the crap happening in the states, and join our free
site!"
The Red Cross is a legitimate organization active in supporting
victims of the tragedy and their families. To donate, visit their
official Web site (http://www.redcross.org) or call 1-800-HELP-NOW.
If you have trouble reaching the Red Cross directly, donations are
also possible online through PayPal at and
Amazon .
About CAUCE
CAUCE (Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial Email,
http://www.cauce.org) is the world's largest Internet-based advocacy
organization, with tens of thousands of members across the United
States and supporters across the world. It supports and works toward
passage of legislation prohibiting unsolicited e-mail advertisements.
CAUCE has no budget, no office and is run by an all-volunteer board
using donated resources.
ABOUT SPAMCON FOUNDATION
The donation-supported, nonprofit SpamCon Foundation
(http://www.spamcon.org) helps the Internet community protect email
as a viable medium of communication and commerce. Contact: Executive
Director Tom Geller, +1-415-552-2557, release-20010901@spamcon.org
(bulk and vendor messages prohibited).
---------------------------------------------------------------
About This Message:
This message was written and broadcast by the Coalition Against
Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail. It is copyrighted (c) 2001 by the
Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail.
We encourage redistribution of this message or items from it, as long
as they are not spammed anywhere, are on-topic for any forum to which
you send them, and include our copyright notice. When in doubt, post
the URL of our site (http://www.cauce.org) instead, or put it in your
signature. Press, broadcast, and Internet media may treat this
material as they would a press release. For other commercial
reproduction rights, contact John Levine .
-- Anonymous, September 15, 2001