The loss of life and destruction of property wrought by Hurricane Katrina has been utterly devastating. Unfortunately, now there is another aftereffect to worry about: online criminals are already taking advantage of generous individuals who are looking to donate online to disaster relief efforts.
Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist has filed a civil lawsuit against a Florida man, Robert E. Moneyhan, and obtained an injunction prohibiting him from fraudulently soliciting relief donations intended for Hurricane Katrina victims. Moneyhan, 51, also known as "Demon Moon," allegedly created several Katrina-related websites, none of which was a legitimate charitable operation.
"While difficult times bring out the best in most people, unfortunately they also bring out the worst in a few," said Crist. "The devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina has elicited an agonizing plea for help, and thankfully countless Americans are responding from the bottom of their hearts. The thought that someone would seek to pervert relief efforts when assistance is so desperately needed is truly appalling."
As Hurricane Katrina was gathering strength in the Gulf of Mexico after passing through southern Florida, Moneyhan registered domain names for websites. He created katrinahelp.com, katrinadonations.com, katrinarelief.com and katrinarelieffund.com, as well as possible others that are yet unknown.
As of August 31, the donations solicited from websites katrinahelp.com and katrinadonations.com were to be directed to Moneyhan's private Paypal account. Moneyhan did not file registration documents with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services to solicit donations, as required by law.
Moneyhan also misrepresented that "100% of all donations used for relief." Due to customary transaction fees charged by Paypal, this guarantee is not possible to honor, resulting in violations of advertising laws.
Investigators with the Attorney General's Office determined that none of the websites represents a legitimate charity and no funds donated to Moneyhan's sites would reach Hurricane Katrina victims.
Moneyhan has changed the websites so they no longer solicit contributions, but now appear to offer the website names for sale to the highest bidder. Through quick actions taken by the Attorney General's Office and Paypal, Moneyhan was prevented from capitalizing on his scheme. Today's injunction will prevent Moneyhan from any further website modifications that would unlawfully solicit donations for his personal benefit.
The FBI is currently investigating hundreds of other Web sites posing as online charities to lure in potential donors and obtain their financial information. In addition, there are reports of phony e-mails from fake charities being used to spread worms and viruses.
In an effort to help prevent online exploitation of Hurricane Katrina and help ensure that donations get to the people in need, The National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), offers the following tips to help consumers avoid becoming a victim of an online relief scam or security attack.
• Do not respond to any unsolicited SPAM/incoming e-mails about the hurricane
• Be skeptical of individuals claiming to be surviving victims asking for money to be placed in bank accounts
• To ensure that contributions to U.S.-based non-profit organizations are used for intended purposes, go directly to the Web sites of recognized charities and aid organizations, as opposed to following a link to another site
• Verify the legitimacy of non-profit organizations by consulting trusted Internet-based resources (such as the Network for Good and the Federal Emergency Management Agency), which may assist in confirming the existence of the organization as well as its non-profit status
• Don't open e-mail attachments that claim to contain pictures of disaster areas, as the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders.
