And again—it is enough to make you nauseous—low-life scum on the internet is using a tragedy and try to scam money out of people that want to help the victims.
The Nevada Attorney General’s office is investigating reports of fake online charities collecting donations on behalf of victims that were killed or wounded at a shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas Oct. 1. Officials are partnering with GoFundMe and other social media sites to take down these fraudulent pages.
There has been at least one Facebook page that has been shut down in light of the recent tragedy that was soliciting fraudulent donations. The Attorney General’s office is also aware of other complaints and pursuing those as well.
“There continue to be sham charities and websites seeking to profit from this horrific tragedy,” said Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt. “Complaints from local consumers continue to be the best source of information for our Bureau of Consumer Protection in investigating claims of misrepresentation.”
Steve Weisman wrote: "Scammers will call you, text you, email you or set up websites with the intent to steal your charitable donations. In the case of phony charity websites, they are sometimes set up to appear to be those of legitimate charities with which you may be familiar".
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I suggest you send employees, friends and family an email about this Scam Of The Week, feel free to copy/paste/edit:
"Heads-up! Bad guys are exploiting the Las Vegas shooting. There are fake Facebook pages, tweets are going out with fake charity websites, and phishing emails are sent out asking for donations to bogus Vegas Charities.
Don't fall for any scams. If you want to make a donation, you can go to http://www.charitynavigator.org before you consider giving to any charity. This free website will let you know if the charity is legitimate or a scam. It will also tell you how much of what it collects actually goes toward its charitable work and how much it spends on salaries and administration expenses.
Do not click on any links in emails or text you might get. Whatever you see in the coming weeks about Las Vegas disaster relief... THINK BEFORE YOU CLICK.
For KnowBe4 customers, we have a phishing template, in Current Events titled: "Fox Breaking News: ISIS Releases Video Claiming Responsibility for Las Vegas Shooting (Link)". Send this to your employees to inoculate them against disaster relief scams like this.
Warm regards, and let's stay safe out there.
Stu Sjouwerman
Founder and CEO, KnowBe4
