Don’t fall for Japanese Tsunami charity scams

As we’ve seen on far too many occasions before, scammers think nothing of capitalising off human misery. And the disaster which has struck Japan in the last few days is no different in that regard.

Naked Security reader Andrew got in touch, to share with us an email he had received:

The email pretends to come from the British Red Cross, using the subject line “Japan Tsunami Appeal | British Red Cross” and what appears to be a legitimate British Red Cross email address.

But it asks you to send money – via MoneyBookers – to a rather shady-looking personal Yahoo email address.

It’s not exactly likely that the Red Cross are accepting donations in this way, is it? You’re much better off visiting the British Red Cross’s official website if you wish to help the people of Japan recover from the terrifying earthquake and…

Read more in my article on the Naked Security website.

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Graham Cluley •   @gcluley

Graham Cluley is a veteran of the cybersecurity industry, having worked for a number of security companies since the early 1990s when he wrote the first ever version of Dr Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit for Windows. Now an independent analyst, he regularly makes media appearances and is an international public speaker on the topic of cybersecurity, hackers, and online privacy. Follow him on Twitter, Mastodon, Threads, Bluesky, or drop him an email.