Cloudmark to Help Tsunami Relief Donors ‘Catch’ Fraudulent Emails
Jan. 25, 2005– Cloudmark(R) Inc., the company that delivers the immune system for email, today announced an educational campaign to help protect tsunami relief organizations and individual donors from the increasing threat of online ‘phishing’ scams surrounding the recent natural disaster. In addition to the company’s anti-fraud educational campaign, Cloudmark is offering free fraud protection, a component of its award-winning SafetyBar solution, to ensure that individual donors and relief organizations have a safe environment to contribute and distribute aid funds.
As part of the anti-fraud educational campaign, Cloudmark will post to its website an example of a ‘phishing’ email — a fraudulent email disguised as a message from a seemingly legitimate tsunami relief agency, attempting to trick the recipient into visiting a fraudulent website designed to steal credit card and other personal information. To view a real-life example of a phishing scheme, please visit http://www.cloudmark.com/tsunamifraud/.
“The egregious behavior of phishers never ceases to amaze me,” said Karl Jacob, CEO of Cloudmark. “Cloudmark is deeply committed to protecting aid donors from email fraud, so that relief organizations can continue to help those whose lives have been devastated by the tsunami.”
“The American Red Cross is able to keep its commitment to be there for victims wherever and whenever disasters strike because of the generosity of the American public. We applaud efforts, like those of Cloudmark, that help protect and educate online contributors to tsunami relief efforts,” said Mila Fairfax, Public Affairs spokesperson for the American Red Cross Bay Area. “We recommend donors contact their preferred non-profit organization directly and refer to Charity Navigator to review the reputations of organizations providing tsunami relief.”
How to Avoid ‘Phishing’ Scams
Below are some tips from Cloudmark CEO, Karl Jacob, to help donors avoid phishing scams. Cloudmark encourages relief organizations to make these resources and information available to their members and donors to help them better protect themselves from scams and enable them to continue to effectively contribute to legitimate charitable giving organizations in this time of great need.
– Give Responsibly and with Care
— Research charitable groups before giving.
— Consider giving to organizations with a history of experience in disaster relief.
— Make donations — by check or credit card, not cash — to the charity directly and not to any particular individual.
— Don’t respond to charitable requests in person (impromptu collections), over email or the telephone.
— If you want to contribute to a charity online, go to the organization’s website directly by typing the web address into your browser.
— Always be wary of clicking links to websites in email.
— Don’t enter personal information such as credit card or bank account numbers into websites listed in emails.
— Improve your computer’s security and use current technology to help block spam, phishing, and online fraud. Cloudmark offers a free and easy download called SafetyBar to help protect you from fraudulent email at http://www.cloudmark.com/products/safetybar/download/.
If You Receive Fraudulent E-mail
— Forward fraudulent email to the charity, company, or other organization being misrepresented.
— Report spam and email scams to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by sending the email to spam@uce.gov.
— Report fraudulent email to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an e-commerce industry trade association, at reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
About Cloudmark, Inc.
Founded in 2001, Cloudmark(R) is the company that delivers the immune system for email. The company offers tailored anti-spam and anti-fraud solutions for the individual user, small and medium businesses (SMBs), large enterprises and service providers to bring immediate relief to thousands of businesses and more than 1.1 million individuals in 156 countries using its solutions today.
Cloudmark invented the highly effective spamDNA technology, the recent innovation of Email Genetic Mapping(TM) coupled with Cloudmark’s revolutionary nDimensional technology and the first peer-to-peer, real-time, SpamFighting community in 1998.