Email fraud is hitting church and charity agencies
-18/08/06
Charities, aid agencies a
Email fraud is hitting church and charity agencies
-18/08/06
Charities, aid agencies and churches are warning their supporters about the continuing fraudulent attempts by unscrupulous operatives to obtain bank details of partners, supporters and unconnected parties through ëphishingí emails.
The common theme, says Christian Aid in a new online communication to its supporters, is an email ñ purporting to come from the agency concerned ñ informing the recipient that the he or she has been awarded a substantial cash grant through a lottery process. The recipient is invited to register details with the sender in order to collect the cash sum.
Other fraudulent claims include ìwe are having difficulties processing your donationî, ìyou need to re-register your personal dataî, or ìour supporter database is not recognizing your account detailsî, concerned relief and development organizations have told Ekklesia.
Says Christian Aid, the UK-based churchesí international aids and advocacy agency: ìNeedless to say, we donít make cash awards of this nature, and this communication is bogus. If you receive such an email, please, under no circumstances register your details with the sender.î
The organization adds: ìWe are doing what we can to notify the appropriate authorities, and we are following up with hosting providers where we can identify them, but we cannot guarantee that we can prevent all such communications circulating.î
Some popular email programmes provide an opportunity to report ëphishingí (passing off as a legitimate organization or bank in order to acquire money or financial data). But often the ëreport spamí facility does little more than place the offending email in a spam folder.
Christian Aid is telling its supporters ìplease simply delete the messageî. But anti-fraud activists say that there are more positive things those on the receiving end can do, if they have the time and inclination.
Paul Laudanski of the Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination (PIRT) Squad encourages people to send the emails to [email protected]. Those purporting to come from financial institutions can be sent to reportsafeonline.org.uk.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police in the UK have an initiative called Fraud Alert at [email protected]. And bogus eBay and PayPal emails can be forwarded to [email protected] and [email protected] to enable them to take action ñ says the Guardian newspaper IT section.
Under no circumstances should people attempt to respond to frauds or bogus emails ñ as this simply informs the illicit spammer that the account they have targeted is active, and makes it both spammable and sellable.
West Africa has often been accused of being a centre of finance scam emails. The Anglican Church in Nigeria earlier this year combined a warning to its supporters about the problem with unsubstantiated accusations against a lesbian and gay Christian organization some apparently wish to discredit.
Global net monitors say, however, that email fraud is an international problem, and warn against stereotyping particular countries or groups.
[Other fraud- and corruption-related stories on Ekklesia: Facing corruption as a global issue; Nigerian church fraud warning includes allegation against gays; Christian calls for inquest on Pinochet arms scandal; Catholic bishops in Philippines speak of imprisonment fears; Christian Aid vindicated over Iraqís ëMissing Billionsí; Named: ‘Dirty dozen’ local authorities trying to profit from arms; Rajasthan governor refuses to sign anti-conversion bill; Kenyan bishops call on government to eliminate corruption; Mixed response to British government aid strategy document; Christian declares candidacy for Arafat’s job; Christians in Iraq tell of ëstate terrorismí African Anglican leader contends liberal -v- conservative divide]
Email fraud is hitting church and charity agencies
-18/08/06
Charities, aid agencies and churches are warning their supporters about the continuing fraudulent attempts by unscrupulous operatives to obtain bank details of partners, supporters and unconnected parties through ëphishingí emails.
The common theme, says Christian Aid in a new online communication to its supporters, is an email ñ purporting to come from the agency concerned ñ informing the recipient that the he or she has been awarded a substantial cash grant through a lottery process. The recipient is invited to register details with the sender in order to collect the cash sum.
Other fraudulent claims include ìwe are having difficulties processing your donationî, ìyou need to re-register your personal dataî, or ìour supporter database is not recognizing your account detailsî, concerned relief and development organizations have told Ekklesia.
Says Christian Aid, the UK-based churchesí international aids and advocacy agency: ìNeedless to say, we donít make cash awards of this nature, and this communication is bogus. If you receive such an email, please, under no circumstances register your details with the sender.î
The organization adds: ìWe are doing what we can to notify the appropriate authorities, and we are following up with hosting providers where we can identify them, but we cannot guarantee that we can prevent all such communications circulating.î
Some popular email programmes provide an opportunity to report ëphishingí (passing off as a legitimate organization or bank in order to acquire money or financial data). But often the ëreport spamí facility does little more than place the offending email in a spam folder.
Christian Aid is telling its supporters ìplease simply delete the messageî. But anti-fraud activists say that there are more positive things those on the receiving end can do, if they have the time and inclination.
Paul Laudanski of the Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination (PIRT) Squad encourages people to send the emails to [email protected]. Those purporting to come from financial institutions can be sent to reportsafeonline.org.uk.
Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police in the UK have an initiative called Fraud Alert at [email protected]. And bogus eBay and PayPal emails can be forwarded to [email protected] and [email protected] to enable them to take action ñ says the Guardian newspaper IT section.
Under no circumstances should people attempt to respond to frauds or bogus emails ñ as this simply informs the illicit spammer that the account they have targeted is active, and makes it both spammable and sellable.
West Africa has often been accused of being a centre of finance scam emails. The Anglican Church in Nigeria earlier this year combined a warning to its supporters about the problem with unsubstantiated accusations against a lesbian and gay Christian organization some apparently wish to discredit.
Global net monitors say, however, that email fraud is an international problem, and warn against stereotyping particular countries or groups.
[Other fraud- and corruption-related stories on Ekklesia: Facing corruption as a global issue; Nigerian church fraud warning includes allegation against gays; Christian calls for inquest on Pinochet arms scandal; Catholic bishops in Philippines speak of imprisonment fears; Christian Aid vindicated over Iraqís ëMissing Billionsí; Named: ‘Dirty dozen’ local authorities trying to profit from arms; Rajasthan governor refuses to sign anti-conversion bill; Kenyan bishops call on government to eliminate corruption; Mixed response to British government aid strategy document; Christian declares candidacy for Arafat’s job; Christians in Iraq tell of ëstate terrorismí African Anglican leader contends liberal -v- conservative divide]