Phishing Alert: Hurricane Harvey Disaster Relief Fraud

Hurricane Harvey has hit the U.S. State of Texas hard, the most powerful storm to make landfall in the U.S. for over a decade and create what has been described as a 500 year flood. At times like this decent human beings want to help each other. However, for others in society namely “cyber-scum” they are exploiting this disaster and human goodness.

It really makes you question the moral fabric of today’s society.

Scammers are now using the Hurricane Harvey disaster to trick people in clicking on links on Facebook, Twitter and phishing emails to solicit charitable donations for the flood victims.

Some examples:

• Phishing emails dropping in a user’s inbox asking for donations to #HurricaneHarvey Relief Fund.
• Facebook pages dedicated to victim relief contain links to scam websites.
• Tweets with links to charitable websites soliciting donations, but in reality include links to scam sites or links that lead to a malware infection.
• Please be wary of anything online covering the Hurricane Harvey disaster in the following weeks.

At Cyber Risk Aware we are advising that you consider sending employees, friends and family an email about this Fraud, feel free to copy/paste/edit:

Phishing and Social Media Disaster Relief Fraud Alert!

Cyber criminals are exploiting the Hurricane Harvey disaster. There are soliciting financial donations using fake Facebook pages, tweets with fake charity websites and phishing emails asking for donations to #HurricaneHarvey Relief Fund that they keep for themselves.

Please be extra vigilant and don’t fall for these scams. If you wish to make a donation, go to your trusted charity website or call them. Please type in their website address in your browser rather than click on links or advertisements you might get. Whatever you see in the coming weeks about Hurricane Harvey disaster relief…please STOP & THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK.

For Cyber Risk Aware customers we will have a new template available about “Hurricane Harvey”. Send this to your employees as soon as possible to raise awareness and protect them, their families and friends from disaster relief fraud.

Take care and try to be Cyber Risk Aware at all times.