Caution Donating to Haiti Relief

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SLAC has experienced an upsurge of virus alerts that we attribute to users looking to get updated information about Haiti and the relief effort.

Requests for donations have started pouring in via e-mail, text message, telephone and social networks such as FaceBook and Twitter. Though many of the sites may be legitimate, unfortunately many more are bogus and associated with Web sites that host malicious software, spyware or other hazardous content,. “Googling” for such information can often lead to these malicious sites.

Stanford has setup a site for Haiti Earthquake: Information and Updates - http://ucomm.stanford.edu/haiti/

They are also matching donations from faculty and staff to Haiti medical aid.

Tips from the Federal Bureau of Investigation:

Before making a donation of any kind, users should adhere to certain guidelines, to include the following:

Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails, including clicking links contained within those messages.
Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.
Verify the legitimacy of nonprofit organizations by utilizing various Internet-based resources that may assist in confirming the group’s existence and its nonprofit status rather than following a purported link to the site.
Be cautious of e-mails that claim to show pictures of the disaster areas in attached files because the files may contain viruses.
Make contributions directly to known organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf to ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes.
Do not give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions: Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.

Published SLAC Today 25 January 2010

Owner: SLAC Computer Security>Last Updated: 07/22/2010
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