Phishing the flood

from Frank Barnako's Internet Daily: "Katrina phishers go trolling"

By Frank Barnako, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:40 PM ET Sep 1, 2005

WASHINGON (MarketWatch) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into reports of fraudulent online solicitations of funds for hurricane relief.

A spokesman for the FBI warned of e-mails making bogus appeals for support, a practice known as phishing. (see Wikipedia entry, here).

"The important point is that [people] initiate contact on their own," the FBI's Paul Bresson told the Washington Post.

Web sites with names such as katrinahelp.com and katrinarelief.com have been created. They refer visitors to another Web site that purports to solicit funds. There is no way, however, to know who is getting the money. A survey by MasterCard International found that after last year's tsunami in South Asia, 170 scam sites appeared soliciting money for supposed relief efforts.