Beware of NZ earthquake scams
At Scam Detectives HQ we’re never surprised by the depths that scammers will sink to. Just days after the disastrous earthquake in Christchurch, fake websites are coming to light designed solely to steal money from those wishing to donate money to help the victims.
The latest websites look almost identical to the Red Cross site but instead of helping those in need, the site will steal your credit card details and plunder your accounts.
At a time when resources are so badly needed elsewhere, the NZ authorities are working hard to remove these fake websites but fully expect more to replace them in the coming days and weeks.
In a related scam, email recipients are asked to allow a charity to use their bank account to accept money on it’s behalf in return for a 10% cut of donated funds
The full text of the email follows:
Dear Friend,
I am James Adam McCoy from Donation4charity,London,UK branch and i am
contacting you to offer you a job to help our charity and also donate to New
Zealand’s present earthquake disaster in Christchurch.We have so many good hearted charity supporter in New Zealand whom are
willing to support the charity but they cannot make payment internationally
due to some international bank charges that may apply,so we want to employ
you to receive the generous gift giving to the charity and you will be our
New Zealand manager of the charity as we do have a branch in Australia as
well and it’s working fine.We have New Zealand generous donators whom are willing to donate to thid
list below:Cancer Research UK
World Vision Sponsor a Child
ActionAid Sponsor a Child
British Red Cross
The National Trust
Christchurch EarthquakeYou will be paid 10% of each donation received for the charity by our New
Zealand donators which will serve as your payment for your support and we
will surely reward you more at the end of every month.Please do contact me back if you are willing to take the job then i will
instruct you further on what to do.I hope to hear from you soon,
Regards,
James McCoy
Donation4charity Support Officerhttp://www.donation4charity.org
Donation 4 Charity
Anyone wishing to donate safely is urged to visit official websites and ignore any unsolicited messages via email or online forums.
One official website accepting donations is the International Red Cross. You can donate at http://www.redcross.org.uk/nzearthquake
Cleaning Contractor in Wrexham
This e-mail is almost laughable. It makes me angry to see people trying to scam people out of a disaster, but the sad fact is, they’ll probably never be found out.