14 DAY TRIAL // Security researchers from Symantec warn that scammers have started taking advantage of the floods that hit several countries recently and this trend is only expected to increase.
In recent weeks, serious floods have affected regions of Australia, Brazil and the Philippines, and, unfortunately, these natural disasters offer a good opportunity for fraudsters to exploit people's emotions.
"Spammers would never let any such opportunities pass by without preying on them. Don’t be surprised to see your inbox bombarded with heart-wrenching emails requesting you to donate towards relief funds," warns Samir Patil, a security expert at Symantec.
A clear example of such a donation-themed scam is presented by Symantec's Mathew Maniyara in a separate blog post.
The attack targets people willing to donate for the victims of the recent floods in Serrana, a mountainous region in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Scammers registered a domain that reads "donations for the tragedy in Friburgo" (in Portuguese) and spammed the link to users.
The website displayed images depicting the damage caused by the floods and a message asking for financial assistance.
"The municipalities and fire department have confirmed a total of 600 deaths. Rio De Janeiro is in need of your help. We donate food and water to those people who have lost their homes.
"Please help by donating a little money. You may pay with your credit card or directly from your bank account. On behalf of all the homeless, we are grateful for your help," the Web page read.
Links to donation forms were displayed for various banks, but in fact they led to branded phishing pages that had the purpose of stealing people's financial data.
However, donation and phishing scams are not the only online threats associated with natural disasters. Cybercriminals also commonly engage in black hat SEO attacks that poison the search results for related keywords with malicious links.
People who want to donate are encouraged to contact only trusted relief organizations, by either visiting their website directly or calling them on the phone. They are also advised to get their news from known sources instead of random websites discovered through searches.