Fraud fears over Web appeals

LONDON, England -- Britain's National Criminal Intelligence Service is warning of a number of Internet sites set up in recent days to lure unwitting donors moved by the events in the U.S. to hand over credit card details.

Web sites purporting to represent legitimate charities sprung up within hours of the attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington.

A spokesman for the London-based NCIS told Reuters: "We were very quickly made aware of a number of scams after the attacks and were not surprised.

"These fraudsters typically exploit human misery so they invariably create human misery. They are without scruples because this is how they make money. It is very grubby money."

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The American Red Cross and e-mail advocacy groups warned on September 13 of online scams in the guise of soliciting donations for victims of the terrorist attacks.

Margie Arbon, manager of market and business development for Mail-Abuse Prevention Systems, a U.S. organisation that fights spam, says it started seeing fraudulent e-mail messages the day after the terrorist attacks.

Phil Zepeda, director of online media at the American Red Cross, told CNN: "People are looking to use this as an opportunity to profit.

"It's almost beyond comprehension. It's a further tragedy beyond what has already happened."

The UK-based Internet ScamBusters, a Web site dedicated to reporting on cyber fraud, said it had received reports of "spammers" calling for emergency relief donations in the name of the International Red Cross but actually stealing credit card details for their own use.

"Many of these spammers are trying to steal money and credit card numbers," ScamBusters warns on its Web site (www.scambusters.org).

It adds: "If you wish to contribute money to an organisation, we recommend that you do so directly through the organisation's site."

A spokesman for the Red Cross in London said the organisation had received "a number of calls from people who have received false and unsolicited requests for donations using the Red Cross name."

"We have been advising them of official ways to donate," he told Reuters.

NCIS said it expects to see another style of cyber scam soon to try to capitalise on the U.S. tragedies.

Called the "advanced fee fraud," an NCIS spokesman said it has been used in the past particularly to target West Africans.

He said a victim would get an unsolicited e-mail saying a West African national killed in a well-publicised disaster, such as the hijacking of the planes crashed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon, had left an unclaimed fortune.

"They would then say, 'I have chosen you as a trusted source to help get this money out of the country, please supply me with your bank details.'

"It seems fairly innocent. All they need is a sign you are hooked," the official said.

"But they then say we have come up with a problem and need to bribe someone or pay off a lawyer, hire an armoured car, things like that -- so you end up losing £30,000 ($44,000) pretty quick."

Investigators say Internet fraud costs credit card companies millions of dollars every year, although it is hard to put a price on it since many victims, too embarrassed to admit they fell for a scam, to not contact authorities.

The main American Red Cross Web site is www.redcross.org.

The Red Cross's official online donation system web addresses are: store.yahoo.com/redcross-wtc/ and www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp.