Avoiding Scams & Frauds

Relief and charity efforts began immediately after the hurricane devastated the Gulf Coast area. Websites began to appear which were designed to defraud unsuspecting users. Some of the activities include soliciting donations for seemingly charitable purposes, attempting to collect personal information through phishing scams and also spreading malware to unsuspecting users. Domain names that redirect users to malicious websites have appeared online, in addition to email scams requesting donations for those impacted by the hurricane. While some of these sites and messages may be legitimate, many are not.

In addition to fraudulent websites, opportunists may use this event as a vehicle for other types of online attacks. For example, email messages that claim to contain attachments with photos, video, or other information about the hurricanes may actually contain viruses, worms, or other malware.

We recommend people be advised to:

Validate the relief fund or charity through a known reliable entity.
When a message containing a request for donations for these victims appears, do not respond unless you are certain it is a valid message.
Avoid visiting untrusted websites.
Avoid opening email messages and attachments that claim to contain video, photos, or other information relating to relief solicitation.
Follow standard best practices for email and web browsing security.