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[James (Jim) Hillier]

The internet is indeed a wondrous thing; a truly marvelous medium encompassing a myriad of resources for communication, research, education, socialisation, etc.

Unfortunately, the 'net' and its resources are also freely available to the scumbags and morally deficient members of our worldwide society.

The latest email scam involves taking advantage of the recent disaster in Japan. Emails, claiming to be from legitimate charitable organisations, are already doing the rounds and it is expected more will follow. Many are purporting to come from International Red Cross based foundations; one in particular has the appearance of coming from the British Red Cross and is urging recipients to donate via a Yahoo email account.

DO NOT under any circumstances:
*Follow any Web links included in these e-mail messages.
*Open any attachments or click on photos and videos that claim to show dramatic images or footage of disasters.
*Provide any sensitive information, such as bank account information or credit card details.

ALWAYS ascertain the legitimacy of the email before doing anything; Most genuine charities have email addresses which emanate from their own domain and typically direct recipients to their own Web site to make donations....e.g. almost all legitimate charities have a web address that ends with ".org" rather than ".com". Verify the authenticity of an email by going directly to the charity's web site or by giving them a call on the telephone.

Here are some other current disaster related scams:
*Twitter spam which includes a link to a brand new site purporting to sell an electronic book on how to "minimize your chances of radiation sickness."
*Japan disaster related emails which include links to pages with Java exploits designed to install malicious programs.
*Facebook clickjack attack where users are tricked into liking a YouTube video link that claims to show video of a whale hitting a building during the tsunami in Japan.

Disgraceful isn't it!! I wonder if there is a way to collect all the source particulars and build a new online directory; The World Wide Register of Known Scumbags!!!

[marko]

It never really does cease to amaze me Jim just how low people will stoop for a few quid, I mean only last night here in the UK we had Comic Relief and some of the footage shown on that really does leave a lump in your throat yet there are people out there collecting in the name of Comic Relief with no intention of passing on the money - makes me sick to think our fellow men and women are capable of such selfishness, but hey, I'm great believer in what goes around comes around, some day, in some way they'll pay for their actions