FromToday's Times.
Matt Murray
mattm@optonline.net
Copyright 2001, Matthew D. Murray. Permission to reproduce these words
on the list explicitly granted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/28/national/28CHAR.html?searchpv=nytToday
September 28, 2001
Reports of Scams Preying on Donors Are on Rise
By MELODY PETERSEN
The day after the terrorist attacks, Richard Welty found an unsolicited
message in his e-mail, urging him to visit a Web site where he could give a
donation to victims.
The Web site, festooned with American flags, had buttons viewers could click
to make donations to the "Red Cross" or the "Victims Survivors Fund." Upon
clicking a button, Mr. Welty was taken to another site that asked for his
credit card number.
"I got pretty upset," said Mr. Welty, a resident of Averill Park, N.Y., who
runs e-mail lists for auto enthusiasts. "It was almost certainly a scam." He
said he immediately called the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Albany.
The site's operators, whose identities are still unknown, quickly shut it
down.
With millions of Americans opening their wallets to help victims of the
attacks, reports of con artists trying to prey on donors are increasing, the
Better Business Bureau and other watchdog groups say.
The apparent scams include door- to-door magazine salesmen asserting the
proceeds of their sales will go to victims in New York and telemarketers
saying they are collecting money to hunt down Osama bin Laden.
Government officials and watchdog groups found similar scams during the
Persian Gulf war and after the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma
City.
But this time, the rapid and generous giving to relief organizations has
increased the opportunities for devious personal gain. In the last two
weeks, the American Red Cross alone has collected about $211 million, far
more than the organization has collected in previous disasters. Knowing
that, government officials and consumer watchdogs have been on heightened
alert for possible fraud.
Setting up a fraudulent charity "would be the dumbest choice to make," said
Eileen Harrington, associate director for marketing practices at the Federal
Trade Commission. "Everyone is watching."
The United States Postal Service has advised post offices to be alert to any
activity that appears unusual.
After a man in Plantation, Fla., told the local post office to put mail
addressed to the "Victims of W.T.C." in his post office box, the local
postal staff alerted government inspectors, who visited him.
"He said he had every intention of sending the money to victims, but we
asked him to stop," said Lori Groen, a postal inspector at the United States
Postal Inspection Services. He was not charged with any crime, she said.
Bennett Weiner, chief operating officer of the Better Business Bureau's Wise
Giving Alliance, a national charity watchdog organization, said reports of
questionable practices began just hours after the attacks in New York and at
the Pentagon. The number of inquiries from consumers about questionable
fund-raising efforts has increased by about 40 percent since Sept. 11, Mr.
Weiner said. "It has been nonstop," he said.
Leisa Petersen, of Beaufort, S.C., said she received a call from a
telemarketer two days after the attacks that she believed was fraudulent.
The caller claimed to represent some law enforcement agency, Ms. Petersen
said, and asked for donations for the victims. He gave up, she said, after
she asked to be sent more information. "All I could do was think, `How
thoughtless,' " she said.
In Boise, Idaho, residents complained to the local Better Business Bureau
about telemarketers asking for donations to the "Red Cross of America" - not
the actual global relief organization, which is called the American Red
Cross.
Tom Geller, who runs the SpamCon Foundation, a group that works to reduce
unsolicited e-mail, said that questionable donation pitches through spam
began within hours of the World Trade Center attack.
One e-mail message asked for donations to "find Osama bin Laden."
"If we successfully catch Osama, we will refund all the money and send you
report," the message said. The message asked for wire transfers to a bank in
Estonia.
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