It's an easy prediction; cybercriminals will pounce on the earthquake disaster in Haiti and try to trick you into giving them your money. Almost as soon as the earthquake hit yesterday, thousands of Twitter entries began to appear. The first were simply requests for more information. The next wave of "tweets" were more poignant, and were from friends and relations of people in Haiti seeking ways to contact their loved ones when the phone lines were out of order. Now, the third wave of messages, as we see the images and videos of devastation and death, is seeking financial support to relieve the suffering of the Haitian people. Here in the third wave is where the cybercriminals will hide.
As the inevitable spam comes with email, Twitter, Facebook and other requests for donations to legitimate organizations or barely disguised phony ones, I urge you to take the normal precautions before sharing your credit cards or banking information with a charity. Type the address for reputable nonprofits in your browser, never click on a link. Select your designated organization with care; don't follow the suggestions of unknown senders in an email and give to an unknown group.
And if you are an employee of a large corporation, ask your Human Resources department if you have a charitable matching program, enabling you to increase your generosity through the programs in your own Employee Benefits program. I'm happy to report Symantec/Norton has already pledged $50,000 to CARE and will match all employee donations, dollar for dollar.
1/15 HAITI SCAM UPDATE:
FBI issues Haiti fraud alert
Symantec tracks Haitian email scams
Free airfare hoax on Twitter and Facebook