Scammers take advantage of Katrina

[tocqueville]

The relief effort for Hurricane Katrina may have been slow getting off the ground - but internet scam artists have shown no lack of initiative, writes David Fickling.

Fraudsters now see a major disaster as perfect bait to draw in the unwary: the aftermath of the south Asian tsunami saw dozens of such scams, and Katrina seems to have sparked even more.

The FBI reports that more than 500 sites have been advertising Katrina relief services, with 300 established last Friday alone. Some are no doubt legitimate and sincere, but several have already been fingered for alleged illegal practice.

Missouri’s attorney general yesterday lodged a fraud suit against Frank Weltner, a member of the neo-Nazi National Alliance whose internet donations site funnelled browsers towards his network of anti-semitic websites. The site has now been shut down.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/2005/09/08/scammers_take_advantage_of_katrina.html