CAUCE NORTH AMERICA NEWS, Vol 12, No 1, January 2010 Beware Haitian Relief Scams
John Levine
CAUCE News, Volume 12, Number 1
January 2010
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Watch Out for Haitian Relief Scams
Many of us have seen the heart-wrenching scenes from the world's latest
natural disaster, in Haiti, and want to help.
Unfortunately, there are some who would take advantage of the
situation, and people's charitable nature, and put fraudulent requests
for money online. As Linda McGlasson at the [2]Bank Info Security blog
said, "there is a special place in hell" for people like this.
Let's hope so, because the sad, awful truth of it is that Symantec is
[3]reporting this morning that they have already seen spam fraudulently
claiming to be from the Red Cross, soliciting donations for Haitian
Earthquake relief funds. There have been sporadic reports of fraudulent
tweets on Twitter, and some Google search results have been skewed in
an attempt to divert people to malware and phishing sites.
Do not use links to potentially fake charities from anywhere but the
most trusted of reliable sources.
To be safe, US readers can check the [4]list of charities at
whitehouse.gov.
If you are in Canada, the Canadian government is matching private
donations--you can find [5]more information here.
If you are in another country, check out your federal government's or
local newspapers' websites to find out where best to send funds.
Lastly, and most importantly, don't let these bad actors scare you off
from doing the right thing. Please donate generously, if for no other
reason than to prove the world is a better place than they make it out
to be.
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Canadian Electronic Commerce Protection Act Update
Parliament has been [6]prorogated until March 2010, and it is unlikely
(but not impossible) that the anti-spam bill, C-27 will survive the
process. [7]Michael Geist comments.
Unfortunately, the Canadian Marketing Association is taking this
opportunity to again to [8]lobby the government to remove opt-in as the
basis for the law. Clearly, CAUCE disagrees, as does existing Canadian
law. Under PIPEDA, Canada has long maintained an opt-in r�gime.
The Conservatives will likely appoint [9]five new Senators in the
interim period, which would sway the balance of power in the Senate.
CAUCE looks forward to C-27 being re-tabled in the House of Commons
during the spring session, scheduled to begin in march, 2010.
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News about CAUCE
CAUCE is pleased to announce that [10]The Messaging Anti-abuse Working
Group recently approved CAUCE as a supporting member. CAUCE Board
members already play a very active role with MAAWG. JD Falk, John
Levine, Chris Lewis, and Dennis Dayman all play leadership roles with
the organization.
__________________________________________________________________
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References
1. http://www.cauce.org/
2. http://blogs.bankinfosecurity.com/posts.php?postID=416
3. http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/HaitiEarthquake/haiti-relief-scam-mail-spammers-line/story?id=9561420
4. http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/01/14/president-haiti-first-waves-our-rescue-and-relief-workers-are-ground-and-work
5. http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/750738
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legislative_session
7. http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/4651/125/
8. http://www.canadianmarketingblog.com/archives/2010/01/how_is_the_federal_antispam_6.html
9. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/harper-suspends-parliament-to-recalibrate/article1415625/in
10. http://www.maawg.org/
11. mailto:cauce-us-ann...@lists.cauce.net
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