US warns of financial scams on Web
WASHINGTON -- Websites claiming to collect donations for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Phony e-mails pretending to be from well-known charities soliciting money.
Online auctions of Internet domain names with Katrina-related addresses, such as ''katrinaourtsunami.com."
Less than two days after the hurricane, Internet opportunists are already trying to cash in on public sympathy for Katrina's victims.
Within the past 24 hours, several websites have emerged promising to forward money to relief workers. Bearing such names as Katrinahelp.com, katrinadonations.com and katrinarelief.com, the sites ask for money to be sent through Paypal, but there's no way to verify who's getting the money.
The auction site
Bidding was to start at $15,000 and the seller promised to deliver half of the final winning bid amount to the American Red Cross. EBay allows sellers to dedicate a portion of their profits to charities, but requires the seller to either sign up for eBay's own giving program or obtain permission from the charity first.
Red Cross officials said no such permission had been granted and eBay said it terminated the auction because the seller did not observe company rules on charitable giving.
Yesterday, FBI spokesman Paul Bresson said the agency was investigating a handful of reports of fraudsters using e-mail and websites to impersonate legitimate fund-raising and relief organizations related to the hurricane.
''People who want to make a donation or contribute to a cause should actively seek out reputable organizations and then contact them by telephone or by typing their Web address into a Web browser," Bresson said. ''The important point is that they initiate this contact on their own."
Federal Trade Commission spokeswoman Claudia Bourne-Farrell cautioned consumers never to click on any link in an e-mail solicitation because consumers may end up at a phony site that looks real but is only a setup by identity thieves to get confidential information.
