Washington:
As the Internet was flooded with outpourings of sympathy, first-hand reports and calls for help on the Haitian earthquake, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an urgent "fraud alert" warning potential donors to be cautious while responding to unsolicited emails and advertisements on the Internet asking for donations for Haiti relief.
"The FBI today reminds Internet users who received appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests," it said in a statement.
The FBI issued the warning after detecting such solicitation on the Internet.
"Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organisation and/or a good cause," the FBI said.
Before making any donation, FBI urged netizens not to respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages and be sceptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social
networking sites.
It also asked people to verify the legitimacy of non-profit organisations by utilising various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group's existence and status rather than following a purported link to the site.
"Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders,"the alert said.
It asked donors to make contributions directly to known organisations rather than relying on others to make the donation on their behalf.
"Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft," the FBI said. A link was provided that allowed visitors to report a suspected scam related to the Haitian disaster.
As Americans came out in large numbers to make donations for rescue and relief operations for the victims of the devastating quake in Haiti and several news channels also made similar appeals to the people on their network.
Social-networking sites in particular have been flooded with calls and offers for help. On Twitter, people from around the world logged on to express emotions, provide links to sites where donations are accepted and give snippets of the latest news and word from the quake-torn region. "Tweets" from Twitter users flashed by on Google's real-time Twitter search at a rate faster than one per second.
"No matter what your nationality or religion, everyone needs to pray for the people of Haiti," tweeted GypsysMusic on Wednesday.
That note was followed quickly by dozens of others expressing intentions to donate and encouraging others to join in providing aid to relief organisations.
Multiple users almost simultaneously tweeted the instructions for how to donate money to the Red Cross via text message. Those instructions were re-tweeted by countless others, potentially reaching millions of Twitter followers.
Soon thereafter, jubilant tweets appeared pointing to a news story confirming that the Red Cross had raised more than $800,000 for Haiti through a text message campaign.
Care2, the social-networking site designed to connect activists around the world, provided front-page coverage of the tragedy, with links allowing users to post messages of support to humanitarian aid workers and details about how to contact and donate to organisations providing relief, including the American Red Cross, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Doctors without Borders, Mercy Corps and others.
Members of the site likewise posted instructions on how to provide aid for other members to read.
On Delicious.com, the web's largest social bookmarking site, links to background information about Haiti and news stories about how to help the victims dominated the front page.
Even social-networking sites not normally devoted to current events were abuzz with concern and pleas for solidarity. Gaia online, one of the Internet's largest general discussion boards frequented mostly by teenagers, quickly had dozens of threads about Haiti with hundreds of responses.
"Watch the news," implored one Gaia user, Miss Crimson. "They're telling people how they can help. Fundraisers, the Red Cross and churches are pitching in."
That message was quickly followed by another from wtf corbin, saying: "I donated ... 300 dollars."
Many users were appalled, however, at the amount of misinformation being disseminated. Erroneous reports of UPS offering free shipping to Haiti were quickly debunked, and dire warnings rang out from Twitter users about dozens of scams being perpetrated in an attempt to exploit the tragedy.
"Fraud alert!" wrote Twitter user tawandah, followed quickly by tweets pointing to news stories about brazen scam artists.
By the evening, Internet scams were so widespread that the FBI issued the official alert.
Those who wanted to follow up-to-the-minute happenings in Haiti often turned to Twitter over the major news organisations, which were still scrambling to get journalists into the Caribbean country. Many news organisations, in fact, were posting on Twitter in an attempt to find users willing to share pictures or video from Haiti.
Such images or first-hand accounts were hard to come by, but they could be found on Twitter. On TwitPic, a site that allows photo sharing on Twitter, LisandroSuero (http://twitpic.com/xx44y) posted multiple photographs depicting the damage the earthquake caused.
Other Twitter users recounted in words the horrors of the day.
User troylivesay (http://twitter.com/troylivesay) wrote: "Covered in dust and debris ... we saw a few bodies that had been pulled out of the rubble lying dead in the sidewalk ... many others injured."
Twitter user fredodupoux (http://twitter.com/fredodupoux) confirmed the worst: "Dead bodies are everywhere. I haven't seen one ambulance or any professional medical care anywhere in Port-au-Prince."
"The FBI today reminds Internet users who received appeals to donate money in the aftermath of Tuesday's earthquake in Haiti to apply a critical eye and do their due diligence before responding to those requests," it said in a statement.
The FBI issued the warning after detecting such solicitation on the Internet.
"Past tragedies and natural disasters have prompted individuals with criminal intent to solicit contributions purportedly for a charitable organisation and/or a good cause," the FBI said.
Before making any donation, FBI urged netizens not to respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages and be sceptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social
networking sites.
It also asked people to verify the legitimacy of non-profit organisations by utilising various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group's existence and status rather than following a purported link to the site.
"Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses. Only open attachments from known senders,"the alert said.
It asked donors to make contributions directly to known organisations rather than relying on others to make the donation on their behalf.
"Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft," the FBI said. A link was provided that allowed visitors to report a suspected scam related to the Haitian disaster.
As Americans came out in large numbers to make donations for rescue and relief operations for the victims of the devastating quake in Haiti and several news channels also made similar appeals to the people on their network.
Social-networking sites in particular have been flooded with calls and offers for help. On Twitter, people from around the world logged on to express emotions, provide links to sites where donations are accepted and give snippets of the latest news and word from the quake-torn region. "Tweets" from Twitter users flashed by on Google's real-time Twitter search at a rate faster than one per second.
"No matter what your nationality or religion, everyone needs to pray for the people of Haiti," tweeted GypsysMusic on Wednesday.
That note was followed quickly by dozens of others expressing intentions to donate and encouraging others to join in providing aid to relief organisations.
Multiple users almost simultaneously tweeted the instructions for how to donate money to the Red Cross via text message. Those instructions were re-tweeted by countless others, potentially reaching millions of Twitter followers.
Soon thereafter, jubilant tweets appeared pointing to a news story confirming that the Red Cross had raised more than $800,000 for Haiti through a text message campaign.
Care2, the social-networking site designed to connect activists around the world, provided front-page coverage of the tragedy, with links allowing users to post messages of support to humanitarian aid workers and details about how to contact and donate to organisations providing relief, including the American Red Cross, CARE, Catholic Relief Services, Doctors without Borders, Mercy Corps and others.
Members of the site likewise posted instructions on how to provide aid for other members to read.
On Delicious.com, the web's largest social bookmarking site, links to background information about Haiti and news stories about how to help the victims dominated the front page.
Even social-networking sites not normally devoted to current events were abuzz with concern and pleas for solidarity. Gaia online, one of the Internet's largest general discussion boards frequented mostly by teenagers, quickly had dozens of threads about Haiti with hundreds of responses.
"Watch the news," implored one Gaia user, Miss Crimson. "They're telling people how they can help. Fundraisers, the Red Cross and churches are pitching in."
That message was quickly followed by another from wtf corbin, saying: "I donated ... 300 dollars."
Many users were appalled, however, at the amount of misinformation being disseminated. Erroneous reports of UPS offering free shipping to Haiti were quickly debunked, and dire warnings rang out from Twitter users about dozens of scams being perpetrated in an attempt to exploit the tragedy.
"Fraud alert!" wrote Twitter user tawandah, followed quickly by tweets pointing to news stories about brazen scam artists.
By the evening, Internet scams were so widespread that the FBI issued the official alert.
Those who wanted to follow up-to-the-minute happenings in Haiti often turned to Twitter over the major news organisations, which were still scrambling to get journalists into the Caribbean country. Many news organisations, in fact, were posting on Twitter in an attempt to find users willing to share pictures or video from Haiti.
Such images or first-hand accounts were hard to come by, but they could be found on Twitter. On TwitPic, a site that allows photo sharing on Twitter, LisandroSuero (http://twitpic.com/xx44y) posted multiple photographs depicting the damage the earthquake caused.
Other Twitter users recounted in words the horrors of the day.
User troylivesay (http://twitter.com/troylivesay) wrote: "Covered in dust and debris ... we saw a few bodies that had been pulled out of the rubble lying dead in the sidewalk ... many others injured."
Twitter user fredodupoux (http://twitter.com/fredodupoux) confirmed the worst: "Dead bodies are everywhere. I haven't seen one ambulance or any professional medical care anywhere in Port-au-Prince."
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