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."

Comments

How can they sleep at night...?

[Lindsay Lohan]

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

ZDNet Australia had a good article a few days ago about a website, http://www.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]

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

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

[fembots]

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...?

[lord sibn]

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]

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]

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.

Wikipedia

[JaxWeb]

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 .

This is a news story 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.

Giving intelligently

[GuyMannDude]

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 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

Reliable Orgs.

[jfonseca]

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.

Re:Education

[Drooling Iguana]

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.

Le Sigh

[halcyon1234]

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...