FBI Warns: Many Tsunami Relief Pleas Are Fake

lgrinberg writes "Even in the face of terrible disasters such as the Tsunami that hit South East Asia and Africa in late December, many are finding ways to take advantage of it and make money off of it. An example is fake websites that claim to be non-profit charitable organizations that help out the victims when they really take all the money for themselves. Other instances are emails or websites written by people who claim to be survivors of the disaster and are asking for help. The FBI warns that many of these are fake and recommends people to help via known non-profit organizations."

How can they sleep at night...?

[Lindsay Lohan (847467)]

many are finding ways to take advantage of it and make money off of it

ZDNet Australia [zdnet.com.au] had a good article a few days ago about a website, http://www.incybernet.com [incybernet.com] that the Red Cross and Tasmanian police were investigating for fraud. They were using the Red Cross logo, soliciting for credit card, money order, or cash donations. Of course, they wouldn't return calls from the mobile phone number listed on the website.

Amazingly, the site is still up. The owner, "Damion", offers the following weak apology:

"My sincere apology to redcross Australia and world vision Australia , and other well know charity's for disfame i might of bought to your relief efforts or your company"

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[k4_pacific (736911)]

Not only that, it doesn't render well in Firefox. What is wrong with these people?

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[fembots (753724)]

They probably figured whoever is smart enough to use Firefox will be smart enough to think twice about donating.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[0racle (667029)]

I have no doubt that it's completely true through the use of the double negative. In plain English, '...did not raise no money,' is raised money, and '...nore did no one,' is some people did. So now we have, 'Through my unauthorised site to accept donations i did raise money and people donated to the site.'

That or he is just this side of illiterate.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[Winkhorst (743546)]

It has been my policy over the years never to deal with anyone who can't manage to render his ideas in passable English. Any legitimate operation is at least going to hire somebody to keep an eye on their official verbiage. And anyone smart enough to speak and write decent English is probably not going to need an illegal means of earning a living. This policy has served me well and has been virtually foolproof.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[caferace (442)]

I try not to be irritated by grammar/spelling errors, but people writing in such a phonetic Neanderthal way...

It's not Neanderthal. It's Tasmanian. Despite what many people think, there is a difference.

Re:Just so you know

[Monkelectric (546685)]

Sorry to have to do this --

I am revoking your slashdot license. Although your spelling is above average, your cofunsion of the concepts of trademark, patent and copyright are unacceptable. Please note you are still fully qualified to post at fark.

Re:Just so you know

[ceejayoz (567949)]

The Red Cross has a patent on that logo, and they aggressively defend it, even against other philanthropic, non-profit, and medical organizations.

And rightly so... if it were to become diluted, you'd get situations like hospital ships being fair game in combat.

Re:Just so you know

[The Tyro (247333)]

you'd get situations like hospital ships being fair game in combat

It's fair to mention that the LOAC (Laws of Armed Combat) make such facilities fair game if they are being used to perform military action. That said, I haven't seen too many terrorists being shy about targeting hospitals regardless of use, or using them (and mosques, and schools) as fighting positions. When I served in the Afghanistan theatre, we even made troops leave their long-arms (and all ordinance heavier than side-arms) outside our hospital. Now our "hospital" was a tent, we were miles from anything, and there were no media types around to see it, but we still did it. It wouldn't have stopped the terrorists from rocketing our position, but we at least tried to play by the rules.

In the subject of the Red Cross, the LOAC explicitly prohibits perfidy, or treacherous actions, including misuse of the Red Cross or Red Crescent. The laws of warfare can probably stand alone without the support of the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[ScrewMaster (602015)]

I had a psych professor that defined it this way: "A psychopath is a person that doesn't know right from wrong, and a sociopath is a person that does know right from wrong but just doesn't care."

Psychopaths are more dangerous in some ways but are easier to spot (the obligatory chainsaw is a dead giveaway.) Sociopaths, on the other hand, generally do more damage overall because they are very good at protective coloration (i.e., "fitting in") making them very difficult to detect. Significantly, the more c

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[servognome (738846)]

*GASP* You want God to have a cheap bronze alters? He did create everything in existance, don't you think he deserves a little better. You shall be burned for heresy, using only the best and most expensive oak and cherry wood, for God's vengence knows no price.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[evilmousse (798341)]

ahhhh geez, that art is in a large sense communal.

spurn the church's patronage of art and you spurn michelangelo, donatello, and all the rest of the ninja turtles. seriously, people forget that though science and society seems to have outgrown the need for dogma, the church through history propped up the infant institutions of art, and most especially reading education (you learning-worshippers, you. pre-gutenberg writing was often religion's.) i would venture to say that the majority of venerated art though world history has been at least in part religious.

Re:How can they sleep at night...?

[lord sibn (649162)]

Alright. Substitute a "Gold Altar" (which, by the way I have never seen, and i've been around a few times. the worth of such an altar would suggest a high profile target for theft) for "a staff of 30,000 (pulled from my ass statistic) workers who must be compensated in some way.

Get this: Gold Altars are not in high demand among any major religion. Funds to procure such altars are scarce. You are pulling information out of your ass. Information pulled from your ass is equally well refuted by information pulled from mine.

So in that vein, I'd like to see these gold altars you claim to be so common.

I realise there are charities that exist which do not pay their volunteers. but there are so many more that do than there are that do not, you've got no grounds for complaint.

Mod me a troll if you must, but consider: There is no evidence (apart from anecdotal) to support the outrageous claim that any (arbitrary) religious "charities" pocket their income to buy "Gold Alters" (misspellings included) and donate only the leftovers to help those in need.

Mere disagreement between you and a few members of a particular religion is not conclusive proof that the religion in question squanders funds donated for charitable causes. Get the records if you want, and get back to me.

I can't vouch for your donations, but in all the churches i've attended, financing records are available to anybody who dares to question them.

If what you say is true, then Uncle Sam must not care that we're buying Gold Altars with those funds we declared would be sent to relief aid for those tsunami victims. /me prepares for the onslaught of -1 (Troll) mods

The worst thing I heard of...

[Peden (753161)]

Happened in Sweden (or maybe Britain). When the lists of missing persons was release, some people cross-referenced it to the list in the phone-book. Then they went out and fsking robbed the houses of the mising persons!

Re:The worst thing I heard of...

[Looke (260398)]

That is what happened last time Sweden was hit by an accident this large. When the ferry Estonia sank in 1994, 800 or so were killed. This experience is the most important reason why the list of missing/dead Swedes has not been published yet.

Re:The worst thing I heard of...

[henrik (98)]

The list was never released by the state department (UD) in Sweden due to fear of this as it happened earlier when lists such as this was released to the public. So somebody told you a lie about it happening this time.

The thing that did happen was that when newspapers and tabloids published names and photos of missing that relatives sent them; then some of those were robbed.

Wikipedia

[JaxWeb (715417)]

As many of you have probably seen, Wikipedia is listing charities in various countries of a temporary page. They mention the need to look out for fraud, but I hope none of the sites listed are fraudulent in any way. The page is here [wikipedia.org] .

This is a news story [sky.com] about somebody changing e-mail headers to pretend to be the British government confirming friends of the recipients to be dead. Very sick. Luckily, the police acted in this case.

You'd think it would go without saying..

[wfberg (24378)]

Why do dumb/naive people keep falling for scams like this? Each disaster these scams pop up, each time the public is warned about them, but it still works..

Is there some sort of university program I'm not aware of, pumping out mindless peons by the thousands each year so they can make the same mistake as others did last year? Apart from Hamburger University of course..

Then again, University of Miami law professor Enrique Fernandez-Barros [miami.com] somehow managed to become part of a 419 scam in which $1.68 million got lost...

Re:You'd think it would go without saying..

[ultranova (717540)]

People need a firm grounding in basic, day-to-day economics and high school is the place it ought to happen - it certainly will be more useful to 90+% of the students than memorizing the dates of the civil war...

Warning - cynical views ahead.

You forget one important matter - public schools don't exist to benefit the students, they exist to benefit the society. If they also happen to benefit their students, good, but that's more or less a side effect.

Now then, lets think on this a little:

1. If peopl

Giving intelligently

[GuyMannDude (574364)]

Even legitimate charities are sometimes a bit sloppy with how they spend the contributions they get. Many non-profits spend a considerable portion of their donations on fund-raising (read: telemarketers) and compensation of management. One of my favorite non-profits is the American Institute of Philanthropy [charitywatch.org] which is a watch-dog organization that releases reports that "rate" the charities on various criteria. Given the fact that there are so very many organizations that are set up to aid the tsunami victims, I encourage my fellow slashdotians to give their money to an organization that gets an A rating in the guide.

GMD

Re:Giving intelligently

[jxyama (821091)]

FYI, American Red Cross is rated A+.

Re:Giving intelligently

[maunleon (172815)]

I would suggest that people split their donations among two or more charities. That way, it is less likely that their money will be stuck due to logistics.

Personally, I usually go with Red Cross [redcross.org] & Catholic Relief Services [catholicrelief.org].. And please, no argument about donating to a religious charity, it's my choice.

In the back of my mind there is always the fear that some self-righteous warlord will object to US charities helping those he considers his people, so I sometimes lean to charities not directly associated

What does it take to not be an asshole?

[SilentChris (452960)]

During 9/11, people were shocked that street vendors sold water for $20 a bottle and nearby jewelry stores were robbed. I always thought "Well, if the disaster was of a much bigger magnitude, people would probably not do this."

Now, 150,000 dead, and we still have assholes trying to make a buck off it. What does it take for these people to learn morals? Is the extra cash worth that much when there's now several thousand orphans? Do we need, what, a nuclear holocaust to get assholes to knock it off?

A scorpion can't help but sting you!

[Scrameustache (459504)]

During 9/11, people were shocked that street vendors sold water for $20 a bottle and nearby jewelry stores were robbed. I always thought "Well, if the disaster was of a much bigger magnitude, people would probably not do this."
Now, 150,000 dead, and we still have assholes trying to make a buck off it. What does it take for these people to learn morals? Is the extra cash worth that much when there's now several thousand orphans? Do we need, what, a nuclear holocaust to get assholes to knock it off?

I don't follow the logic of that at all.

Why would heartless vultures stop being opportunistic thieves because something bad happened to other people? They lead lives where they constantly look for their next victim, they routinely inflict misery on others, and you, somehow, expect them to suddenly stop being leeches because an unrellated event killed a lot of people at once?

I seriously don't understand how anyone could be surprised that thieves keep on thieving, even when you're upset. If someone has no empathy for the people he/she routinely con in person, there is no reason to expect them to have empathy for the faceless dead, no matter how numerous.

Re:What does it take to not be an asshole?

[SilentChris (452960)]

Uh, well, actually at my company the employees started the contribution drive. It may end up being "good PR", but we actually wanted to team up and help. Bit cynical aren't you?

Leviathan Blood Money Surfaces

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

According [sevenoaksmag.com] to Allan Nairn [google.com], a journalist who's been an Indonesia eyewitness for decades, most of even the legitimate aid money is funneled through governments like the Indonesian, which then funds further attacks on any surviving, devastated populations of these resource-rich "rebellious" regions. Nairn does recommend ETAN [etan.org], which funnels aid to the indigenous "PCC" relief org - which seems the most conscionable course, at least until someone blows the whistle on them.

Fraudulent claims

[Gary Destruction (683101)]

It seems that fraudulent claims in the wake of disaster are becoming commonplace. During 9/11 there were many scams and fake pleas for disaster relief. Such claims are no different than denying people the help that they need. In a way, it's almost like a DOS attack against victims.

Tsunamis and Nigeria

[jwdb (526327)]

The nigerian scam artists have have updated their mailings - I just received one from a person claiming to need help distributing $32m to relief organizations in return for a 10% cut.

Are they ever gonna give up?

Jw

Re:Tsunamis and Nigeria

[jcr (53032)]

Where can we donate to a fund to hire some goons to break their kneecaps?

-jcr

Reliable Orgs.

[jfonseca (203760)]

I've posted this in another discussion.

Not karma hoaring, mods can skip this if they wish, here is a list of reliable places where you can donate [google.com].

Education

[Infonaut (96956)]

This sort of nastiness is really part of the whole spam/phishing/credit card fraud continuum. Because the Internet is such an important part of all our lives now, it seems to me that governments need to start putting out some education about this sort of crap. I don't know if it's already being done in other countries, but in the United States the federal government doesn't seem to be lifting a finger to educate people about how to effectively use the Internet.

This is one of those "ounce of prevention vs. pound of cure" things. If we spend a little bit of money up front to put out TV and radio advertisements, it seems that the government would have to spend far less money investigating these assholes and helping victims of this sort of fraud. If K-12 schools taught kids how to detect online b.s. and community colleges featured this sort of instruction as part of entry-level computer classes, it could go a long way toward minimizing the negative economic impact of the broad range of Internet fraud.

But of course current thinking in the United States is an extreme form of caveat emptor, so I'm just engaging in wishful thinking.

Re:Education

[Drooling Iguana (61479)]

But if the American people learned how to effectively detect bullshit, everyone currently holding an elected office in the country would be out of a job.

I got one

[digitalgimpus (468277)]

I got this via email the other day, and decided to post it for others to see:

Tsunami Scam [accettura.com]

Sounds like a nigerian letter, but with Tsunami mixed in there.

Salvation Army

[stankulp (69949)]

The only charitable organization I contribute to is the Salvation Army.

They have feet on the ground everywhere in the world, and they don't squander your money. It actually makes it to victims of disaster and poverty.

Re:Salvation Army

[davidstrauss (544062)]

they don't squander your money

How would I know where their money goes? They refuse to file financial reports [charitynavigator.org] like most charities by claiming a religious exemption. I demand transparency before any charitable organization reasonably expect any cash from me.

The AIP did eventually get the Salvation Army to do some disclosure [charitywatch.org], but it was back in 1998. But other religious charities, like Christian Aid [charitynavigator.org] regularly release their financial statements without a hassle.

Charities exist in a privilaged place in tax law that can easily be abused [animalrights.net]. So, with the privilage of not paying taxes, charities need to be transparent with their finances. The Salvation Army's use of religious exemption is unacceptable.

Re:Salvation Army

[Uber Banker (655221)]

Yeah, nothing like giving money to people whose primary objective is spreading religion. I prefer to give my money to organisations that spread food, water and shelter and don't spend valuable time corrupting and destroying cultures.

Assist those in acute need, and let them make their own decisions and help them help themselves in working out of chronic troubles.

UH DUH!

[Chanc_Gorkon (94133)]

This is the danger of everyone and there brother adding links to say help the tsunami survivors to their web pages. Everyone should have just link directly to the Red Cross web site or similar organization. This is why I have not donated anything yet because I want to be absolutely certain that when I donate the money, it goes to the right place. I will probably wait until the real money is needed. There's going to be alot of waste now and when everyone forgets about it is when the problem will really start. It will take YEARS to recover the area affected. It's not something that will even be over on December 26th of 2005. This is a once in a lifetime disaster for much of the world. The loss is tremendous. Unfortunately during times such as this, there's always some incredible assholes who think hey I will scam some people. As always, I give IN PERSON. Walk in to the Red Cross in your town and just give them a check or cash. Only then will you know that a good percentage of your money will go where it's needed. Also, don't just give to the Red Cross now. They always need your money. Make it a yearly donation and increase it a bit when the Red Cross is in need of extra help for hurricanes, blizzards, earthquakes, tornadoes and terrorist attacks.

Better yet, if your technically inclined, get your ham license and donate sometime to ARES by training in events and field day. Then when disaster strikes in your area, you'll be ready. I used to think it was ridiculous, but after a bad ice/snowstorm took out people's electric and 2-3 inches of rain falling right after that cause flooding in and around Columubus we'd never be needed but in just 14 days we had 2 activations of ARES to staff the red cross shelters with communciators. I know it won't help the Tsunami victims, but then when something like this hits your town, you can not only donate your money but also your time.

Big nonprofits have big "administrative costs"

[Cryofan (194126)]

I have seen reports that many of the well known charites and nonprofits spend a egregious amount of money on so-called administrative costs, with only a small percent eventually going to those in need.

Apparently these "administrative costs" are often things like new cars and fat bonuses for the nonprofits' management...

Re:Big nonprofits have big "administrative costs"

[soft_guy (534437)]

Legitimate charities disclose the percentage of donations goes to overhead vs. to help victims. The IRS requires this, btw.

For organizations like the Red Cross and Salvation Army, the amount going to overhead is very small.

Acts of God

[Doc Ruby (173196)]

It will be interesting to see how the FBI deals with "muslim" charities it has identified as terror funding conduits, as their pipes are filled with donations from Muslims (and others) targeting the huge Muslim communities devastated by the quake and tsunami. Will the FBI reveal that some Muslim posers are ripping off virtuous donating Muslims, stealing lifesaving aid to instead fund suicide bombers in their jihad? When some are revealed, how will Muslim leaders around the world react? Will some of the leaders who are complicit with the funders find a way to blame the FBI, and America, for their own sins? And will the US government find a way to frame legitimate Muslim charities with fake charges of this kind of fraud, fueling the counter-jihad crusade? God only knows - god certainly isn't doing anything to stop it.

Le Sigh

[halcyon1234 (834388)]

So, should I donate to the Red Cross, or the guy in the mall with the mayo jar and a hand written sign that says "Sunami Relief"?

Oh, how I wish I was joking...

beware spammers too

[AmericaHater (732718)]

Someone is circulating an email appealing for help identifying a lost western child. it says this:

" The boy about 2 years, from Khoa Lak is missing his parents.
Nobody knows what country he comes from. If
anybody knows him please contact
us by phone [phone] ext. 1336, 1339 or e- mail :

[e-mail]
image001.jpg"

Trouble is, it contained a spammers zombie (I didn't realise when I got it) and it depends on suckers trying to be helpful and recirculating it to people they know to infect them. That's how it got to me but 'cos I use Linux I was immune and I didnt circulate it anyway.
What I did do was waste the cops and the Norwegian embassy's time. I recognised the kid in the picture from a TV news report that named his parent nationality name and location. I spent an hour on the phone to the TV station the police and the Norwegian consulate telling them that I knew who the kid was and I could help.
Turns out they knew anyway so did I do right or wrong? did the spammer do wrong? suppose I had been the only one to indentify this lost 2 years to the parent but I had infected loads of people in the process?

Spammers - what slime-bags.

Be careful who you donate to

[thesatch (844290)]

Check out this story:
T.O. police arrest man posing as Red Cross worker [www.ctv.ca]

There's no reason you should to give your money to strangers. If you can't/don't want to donate money over the internet, go to your local Redcross office. Every major city has one.

Small is good

[by Anonymous Coward]

Oh great, now people won't give money to the grassroots organisations who are actually doing good stuff. Instead they'll stick to the big charities like Oxfam who spend most of their money on advertising and administration.

Money, Aid, and Internet Porn

[buckhead_buddy (186384)]

Money is an easily transportable way to move physical effort to places that need it; it's the most efficient way for me to help out, but it's also the easiest way for my efforts to be mis-used. There are three ways that bother me about the calls for aid...

The Debts Owed

Western banks are holding huge debts that these countries can't realisticly repay. The greedy bankers want asian relief so that they'll have a slim chance of seeing their money again. They'd probably be equally happy with telethons asking for sympathetic viewers to help out by pledging money to pay off these huge burdens but they aren't talking of writing off these debts (only of freezing interest or temporarily restructuring payment schedules).

The Massive Organizations of Relief

The best of these agencies have large administrations that need service aid. They need IT upgrades in their luxurious administrative headquarters. They need new parking decks. In the late nineties I volunteered to help a large non-profit in Atlanta for a day. I had all sorts of ideas about cost saving Linux installs, but my job was to act as upgrade boy migrating users to some Windows 98 service pack. The small organizations have trouble doing much but the larger ones are bloated and wasteful of their resources.

The elite in charge

There stories of elite hotels and expansive mansions being washed away give me the impression that much of the rebuilding and relief will be wasted on reconstructing the property of the elite rather than basic necessities for the common man.

Lack of follow through

A friend who works with a local church based charity said that they ask for money when crises like this arise. They don't say that all donations will go to help those victims. Like a sweepstakes they give out X amount of money when they've taken in 100X.

I'd almost given up on the idea of sending any money to a charity based on these misgivings. What changed my mind was, oddly enough, a plea on the blog of a amateur pornographic model that I follow. His familial ties to the area caused him sincere grief over the incident and he had selected Oxfam America as the charity he was asking people to give money to. I still have all of these reservations about donating money, but the difference was in hearing a voice I was familiar with make a recommendation of a "least bad" charity to donate to.

It's really odd when I think about it, but a personal message put out over the internet reached me far deeper than our President's cynical call for (bank) aid, or my church's call for extra donations in the collection basket, or the endless streams of impersonal pleadings that I've seen on television. I guess that's the real power of the internet to raise money... the personal touch... and if some goes astray (as I feel in my gut that it will) I feel much less disgusted with myself for my action.

Re:I'm sorry, but...

[mmkkbb (816035)]

It's news because people forget and need to be reminded that goodwill shouldn't overpower good sense.

Re:Well

[NetNifty (796376)]

Well, either that or slashdot 'em.

Re:And the worst offender is...

[winkydink (650484)]

I'm ashasmed to know that my country is where their head quarters sit.

Only because we can't find another host country stupid enough to take them in.

Re:And the worst offender is...

[J. T. MacLeod (111094)]

The problem that people have with the UN is that it's more than a place for nations can easily discuss problems.

It's a controlling entity, itself. It's from the issues stemming from this that many people take issue with the UN. Well, that, and it's filled with liberal US-haters.

Hating the UN goes back much farther than discussion of invading Iraq under George W. Bush.

Re:You're an ass

[AKnightCowboy (608632)]

Someone above already posted a way for you to know which charities are careful with your money. You are just trying to justify hoarding your money.

Since when is "hoarding your money" a crime? He earned it, he can keep it or give it away in any way he pleases. Some people are going to starve to death and some people are going to be filthy rich, it's just how capitalism works, but it's the best system we've got. The majority of the middle people live relatively decent lives.