Going back to Hurricaine Katrina, natural disasters have been targeted by cybercriminals looking to take advantage of individuals that are sympathetic to these events. As we've warned in the past, newsworthy items are often the targets of scammers. With the growing popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, we advise end users to use caution when dealing with activity surrounding the Earthquake in Haiti.
Cybercriminals will use various tactics to capitalize on situations like this, such as:
- Linking to "supposed" video footage of the event, requiring end users to install a Fake Codec file
- Phishing scams, including links to newly registered domains that include words of the disaster/area (katrina, haiti)
- Search Engine Optimization poisoning to ensure their malicious links land in top search results
- Mobile phone scams involving sending an SMS to a rogue number authorizing a donation to disaster relief
These will definitely gain more traction now with the popularity of social networking sites. It is likely that some of these malicious and phishing links will be obscured behind URL Shortening services like Bit.ly.
We suggest seeking out reputable sources for news as well as organizations, such as the Red Cross for donating to the disaster relief efforts.
