Scammers Riding the Gustav Wave

ruphus13 sends in a sad tale of online scammers hoping to reap rewards from the misery in Gustav's wake. They have been busy registering likely-sounding domains and setting up phishing attacks and other ruses. While not all the domains were malicious in intent, several of them were listed on eBay for sale. Donors beware. From the article: "Nearly 100 domains related to Hurricane Gustav have been registered in the past 48 hours, security experts said Sunday, some of which may be used by bogus charity and relief scams after the storm strikes the US Gulf Coast. According to television station KTAL in Shreveport, LA, the office of Louisiana's Attorney General Buddy Caldwell has warned residents of Gustav phishing attacks already in progress ... numerous domains containing the word 'gustav,' 'charity,' 'hurricane,' and 'relief' had been recently registered."

Comments

I really wish we could shoot them

[vilgefortz]

This preying on other people's tragedy is despicable. Why not mug elderly women on the streets too, it is all dollars, after all!

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[Macthorpe]

Why not mug elderly women on the streets too, it is all dollars, after all!

I know that's kind of a rhetorical question, but it's because it's very, very easy to detach yourself from the victim of your crime if you never even have to look them in the eye while you rob them.

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[morgan_greywolf]

I know that's kind of a rhetorical question, but it's because it's very, very easy to detach yourself from the victim of your crime if you never even have to look them in the eye while you rob them.

Hence the reason you should always mug elderly women by putting a gun between their shoulder blades.

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[Sobrique]

It's not that hard to pretend those words on the screen are just that, and not really people at all.

In fact I'm doing that right now. I know you're all bots, and there's a really complicated rule system for how Karma is gained and lost, based upon keywords and context of a post. But I'll figure it out one day, and ALL my posts will be +5 Troll. Oh yes.

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[Cro Magnon]

Who needs to look them in the eye(s)? Just bonk them on the head from behind. Just make sure you knock them out with the first blow, or they'll pulverize you with their walking stick.

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[Mister Whirly]

If you have zero ability to determine whether or not a charity is authentic or not, you should definitely NOT be giving any money to charities. So I think "idiots" is a fair term. It is admirable that they want to help, but giving money to fake charities doesn't help the actual victims. If someone believes in the absolute goodwill of all mankind, sooner or later they too will be the victim of someone taking advantage of that fact. Besides, a real charity should have no problem being asked to verify it's authenticity.

Re:I really wish we could shoot them

[Inner_Child]

You are flat wrong. This is the 21st century and anyone who doesn't know better than to fall for any online scam deserves what they get.

In fact, I would take it one further and say that its scam victims who deserve to be shot in the streets.

Feel free to line them up right next to any asshole who didn't evacuate when they were told to (Gustav or Katrina) and we can mow them all down with the same bullets so we don't waste anymore taxpayer/donated money on these idiots who forgot they live below sealevel.

Nobody has the right to be stupid.

This message brought to you by the government of Nigeria.

I'm sure their motives are pure...

[bigtallmofo]

Just look at this guy:

http://www.computerworld.com/comments/comment/view/9113918/250642

Hi,

I registered the following domains:

gustavcharities.org
gustavcharities.com
gustavcharity.org
gustavcharity.com
gustavdonation.com
gustavdonation.org
gustavdonations.org
gustavfund.org
gustavrelieffund.com

I registered these domains (proactively) to keep them OUT of the scammer's hands.

So, he registers domains like Microsoft registers "defensive" patents. With no motive of profit and solely for the public good. Now if we could only manage to register the infinite remaining possible Gustav domains (ex: gustav-donations.org), we should be all set.

Re:I'm sure their motives are pure...

[eebra82]

Now if we could only manage to register the infinite remaining possible Gustav domains (ex: gustav-donations.org), we should be all set.

Ultimately, it's not so much about scammers' methods but rather the fact that people give money to questionable organizations. Every time I've donated money, I've always done it through well known organizations.

Re:I'm sure their motives are pure...

[houghi]

Until there is one that is not a scammer and wants to start a private incentive. He is now not able to do so. Domain-squatting is never a good idea. NEVER!

Now you're talking!

[bigtallmofo]

Why not mug elderly women on the streets too

Why not combine them? Mug elderly women who are victims of Hurricane Gustav! They're more likely to be carrying a larger percentage of their worldly possessions as they flee.

Re:Now you're talking!

[ZeroFactorial]

They're more likely to be carrying a larger percentage of their worldly possessions as they flee.

Sweet!! More polydent, depends, and preparation-H than I could ever have dreamed of owning!

Retirement, here I come!!!

Beatup and FUD.. again

[OzPeter]

The TFA does not mention any sites that are being used for phishing. Instead it talks about how phishing sites were set up in the wake of Katrina, and that the sites being registered now may be destined for phishing. Talk about FUD.

I think the Feds should be first to contribute

[crovira]

and that scamming the Feds should be an offense punishable with LONG prison terms.

The opportunity-cost benefit analysis (C-B A) has to changed from the current
  "low cost, low risk but profitable" C-B A into a
  "low-cost but high risk, profitable" C-B A.

That will immediately provide jobs for people in the civil service who will have nothing better to do than to seek out and destroy spammers.

That should in turn shake out anybody who isn't a real criminal while making sure that any scam/spam you do get is punishable. (Spam is a lot less attractive is its going to net the spammer 15 to 20 years in some hell-hole prison, say Guantanamo?)

All the good names are taken

[sakdoctor]

Are you having problems finding good gustav scam domains? Try taking a page out of the web 2.0 book. Here are a few to get you started:

yougustav.com
mygustav.com
gustavr.com

New domains should be much more expensive

[ghoti]

If new domains cost $100 each, there would be a deterrent for people to just go out and register a few dozen. Renewals could then be even cheaper than now. But I guess the registrars are making good money with all those bogus crap domains, so they have no incentive to turn this off. The domain system is seriously broken (including that idiotic "domain tasting").

Re:New domains should be much more expensive

[AP31R0N]

i have an idea that would prolly piss off lots of people but would reduce domain troubles: Get rid of the TLDs. That would end any sort of WhiteHouse.gov vs. WhiteHouse.com issues. It would end Company.com vs Company.org/net, where the latter is a site for praising or hating Company. If we need a TLD to differentiate what packets go to what country, make them all .us. Use trademarks and such to determine who gets to keep the name.

OR

If you're going to have a .org you have to send in paperwork showing you are a registered NPO. You want .com? Send us a copy of your business license.

Re:Beatup and FUD.. again

[Smallpond]

Actually, I think it's good for news organizations to report proactively instead of waiting for what they know is going to happen and then just interviewing a bunch of victims. Getting information out there now may prevent some scams from working.

Anyway, I would think twice about sending money to a charity with a site on Road Runner:

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/stats/hosters

Re:One valid domain

[zippthorne]

Uh.. why not just give directly to the Red Cross, then? It's not like they don't have a website.

It has the advantage that if so many people send money for the storm that they have way more money than they know what to do with, the remainder can go for preparing for the next disaster.*

*Please don't stipulate that they can't do this. The cryogenic blood storage facilities they wanted to build with the surplus 9/11 money would have been extremely useful for future disasters, especially considering the razor thin surplus of blood and it's short viability with current storage techniques. But because of the shortsighted specificity of a huge number of people's altruism, that money was instead used to make a few financially well off people who suffered a tragic loss even more financially well off.

Newsflash: Scammers ride every big wave

[sleeponthemic]

If something significant happens - be it an event selling out, a disaster, etc.. there is always someone exploiting it. It's part of the concept of capitalism and it shouldn't be at all surprising.

(Kind of like when you follow a kdawson article link and it turns out it's another weak piece full of vague opinions, by "experts").

Re:One valid domain

[coleblak]

Never trusted the Red Cross. Red is always the sign of Danger. Green Cross, now that's a trustworthy organization.

No, it looks like a scam, just being tricky

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out the whois information for gustavrelief.com, registered to S H Berkowitz, Light Church in Albany, OR, and then compare it to the whois information for unsafesex.com, a porn site. Look up the domain of Berkowitz's listed email address, klickerz.com, or do a google search for S H Berkowitz "Light Church" to see other domains registered in his name.

Then use curl to get the source of the page at the gustavrelief.com web site without the redirect to the Red Cross site and figure out what the javascript is doing before you get redirected.

Actually I don't know what it is doing, but that on unload event function is certainly trying to do more than I like for a random website, and it certainly doesn't look like a charity website.

STOP

[Shivetya]

I am so tired of people always screaming for long prison terms. The priorities people have make me sad. It used to be that murder and rape were considered the worst crimes yet your bound to get less time for these than many of the new crimes that we invent. When you can take a life and get less time than for taking their money the society you live in has a serious problem.

funny how many of the people who will complain about computer crime are all for having the government take stuff from other people.

Re:STOP

[houghi]

Indeed, people who think like that should be SHOT!

How about some good news? I could use it.

[BenEnglishAtHome]

I'm pretty stressed at the moment so I've been looking for good news. I found something that cheered my heart in the oddest place - Walmart. There are lots of good reasons to hate on Walmart but when I joined the early-morning throngs last Saturday on one last trip to Walmart for supplies in case the storm headed our way, I saw something that made me oddly and disproportianately happy.

My local Walmart had moved a bunch of carts right to the front of the store loaded with flashlights. With a hurricane coming, you can get USD$5 for *any* piece-o-crap flashlight. These were just very basic 2 D-cell plastic lights and as I approached them, I wondered just how overpriced they would be, especially since they included batteries.

They were 50 cents. Two for a buck.

OK, it's not much, but it brought a smile to my face. This morning, I think I'd rather dwell on things like that instead of marveling, again, at how my greedy and dishonest fellow humans are finding yet more ways to pervert a wonderful communications channel into a gauntlet of scammers.

Why I don't like the Red Cross either

[elrous0]

My father and grandfather were career military and despised the Red Cross. And I can't say I'm too thrilled with them myself. When my grandfather was in Korea, they showed up with donuts and coffee for the soldiers--or rather they showed up SELLING donuts and coffee to soldiers (no money, no coffee G.I.!). They were also supposed to provide "family services" to G.I.'s and their families when I was a kid (they were supposed to do things like help contact G.I.'s in the field when there was a family emergency). But, in the experience of my father and other soldiers, they refused to do anything of the sort (if you called them, they would just give you the runaround). "We help the soldiers" looked great on their fundraising posters, but in practice they either did nothing or charged for what they did do (my grandfather called them a "vending contractor without a contract").

Combine that with the fact that they deliberately obscure the fact they they charge hospitals at the full market rate for their donated blood (most people think their donated blood is just given free to hospitals, that's why they donate to the Red Cross rather than directly) and you can see why I'm VERY wary of recommending that people give to the Red Cross for anything. I personally think they're little more than a government-sanctioned charity scam.

AC is dead on the money

[ShinmaWa]

Dead on the money. gustavrelief.com is a TRACKER. It pulls up the red cross website in a full frame and tracks in the main.

When you unload their page, it'll attempt a popup back to their site with (?p=2&ltm=x) appended. Using lynx, it looks like this is a bunch of ads with links, but I can't tell what's behind those links (I click on them and nothing appears to happen inside lynx).

Re:AC is dead on the money

[Anonymous Coward]

According to the Whois database, the domain gustavrelief.com is owned by a church in Albany, OR, and this church is also the owner of about 3,400 other domains such as unsafesex,com, tape.info, and pennsylvaniasecretaryofstate.org.

Incidentally, the names of hurricanes are published in advance and it certainly would be possible to grab all the names for potential future disasters well in advance of their actual occurrence. The domain gustavrelief.com was registered in 2006 and only modified on August 30, 2008.

Charities?

[Sun.Jedi]

Someone explain to me why I should spend my money on problems outside my house/family that will certainly never benefit me or my family when my government refuses to lead the charge?

Without intending to be a troll -- honestly I'm not. This thread seemed to be on topic enough to throw out an unpopular (seemingly) opinion which agrees with the OP.

- Why do I care about oppression in other parts of the world? Doesn't change the price of milk for my kids.
- Why do I need to support other people make life decisions that I do not agree with? Choose to live in a sea level area that can be prone to flooding... get what you deserve or move.
- Why do I care if Mother Nature doesn't like trailer parks if I don't live in one? We all have learned that TPs in tornado/hurricane paths are really bad ideas.
- Why do I need to support cancer research (pick a flavor), Alzheimer's research, or AIDS research if I will never benefit from that investment? Let's face it, I'm a miserable prick, and probably won't care after I'm gone.
- Why should I care if family X migrated (or is illegally in) to the US and hasn't learned the language or gotten a job to support themselves? That plan seems a little light in the 'thinking through' department.
- Why should I care about the homeless, the starved, the drug addicts, and the alcoholics? Giving/supporting them only makes me an enabler, and I won't get to claim them as a dependent -- although that's exactly what they become, dependent.

Bottom line is that all of those questions are exactly what charities ask for all day long. It is not my job to provide for the world, and I despise the fact that my government feels it should waste my tax dollars providing for the unprivileged around the globe, and can't manage to take care of business at home first. If the money the US spent around the globe with no hope of ROI were spent in the US, many of the issues mentioned above would certainly be more manageable than they are now.

Re-evaluate

[bill_mcgonigle]

There are lots of good reasons to hate on Walmart ... They were 50 cents. Two for a buck.

Hrm, seems you've found them to be behaving ethically. Wal*Mart was also the only company with the logistics to get relief supplies in after Katrina (the Southern Baptists being the other bright spot). And they're associated with small business growth.

AFAICT, the good reasons to hate on Wal*Mart are if you're in direct competition with them or are a union organizer. It's true that they source to China for goods, but that's only because our Government has made our goods uncompetitive. If US goods are cheaper they source here.