US-CERT Current Activity - Hurricane Gustav and Phishing Scams

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

US-CERT Current Activity

Hurricane Gustav and Phishing Scams

Original release date: September 1, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Last revised: September 1, 2008 at 12:29 pm

In the past, US-CERT has received reports of an increased number of
phishing scams that take advantage of natural disasters. Due to the
current situation involving Hurricane Gustav, US-CERT would like to
remind users to remain cautious when receiving unsolicited email that
could be a potential phishing scam.

Phishing scams may appear as requests for donations from a charitable
organization asking users to click on a link that will take them to a
fraudulent website that appears to be a legitimate charity. The users
are then asked to provide personal information that can further expose
them to future compromises.

Users are encouraged to take the following measures to protect
themselves from this type of phishing scam:
* Do not follow unsolicited web links received in email messages.
* Review the Federal Trade Commission's Charity Checklist.
* Verify the legitimacy of the email by contacting the organization
directly through a trusted contact number. Trusted contact
information can be found on the Better Business Bureau National
Charity Report Index.

For additional information regarding phishing, US-CERT recommends
reading the following documents:
* Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf)
* Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks

Relevant Url(s):
<http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST04-014.html>

<http://www.us-cert.gov/reading_room/emailscams_0905.pdf>

<http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/telemarketing/tel01.shtm>

<http://charityreports.bbb.org/public/All.aspx?bureauID=9999>

====
This entry is available at
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#hurricane_gustav_and_phishing_scams

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (GNU/Linux)

iQEVAwUBSLwab3IHljM+H4irAQLhbAf+L2kJyFpg2bIL3YJZEFPeF3RatG2f58LS
dLlQAqKokzdYUv4hkOrGPaLFvqct+ToVnS8jFW/TQeYmPM+zFIxoNPs9IxEbBW0j
BRlPY4SzR/gF0aT6kF/ABg9FonAEfuz7zK6LlQsgW1fh5s9iv48jJ84rivYkAWWq
6aJ+nudPtem6jLNuCLQ/1ToD9MITKk+d28r0+F4FZdgdQTa60TgOxN8v/SEK/Wm0
64THS5dKphsMs9LXYQM7rX4FzQZAHZBlEVnylcUzWYxCBLw3gThkfVaQjOkV/GRv
cyg1Jso5Hmt+4aOdKL7UnR0sCKmVrtF1RzlncVKlhpmYFGN8REKDhA==
=TkF3
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----