Cloudmark to Help Tsunami Relief Donors 'Catch' Fraudulent Emails
Leading email security company to educate relief organization donors on threats of online fraud; provides free anti-fraud protection
SAN FRANCISCO — January 25, 2005 — Cloudmark® 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 it's 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 e-mail disguised as a message from a seemingly legitimate tsunami relief agency, attempting to trick the recipient into visiting a fraudulent Web site 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 e-mail or the telephone.
- If you want to contribute to a charity online, go to the organization's Web site directly by typing the Web address into your browser.
- Always be wary of clicking links to Web sites in e-mail.
- Don't enter personal information such as credit card or bank account numbers into Web sites listed in e-mails.
- 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 e-mail at http://www.cloudmark.com/safetybar/download/
If You Receive Fraudulent E-mail
- Forward fraudulent e-mail to the charity, company, or other organization being misrepresented.
- Report spam and e-mail scams to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission by sending the e-mail to spam@uce.gov.
- Report fraudulent e-mail to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, an e-commerce industry trade association, at reportphishing@antiphishing.org.
Cloudmark, the Cloudmark logo, SpamNet, SafetyBar, Email Genetic Map (EGM), Trust Evaluation System (TeS) and Email Genetic Mapping are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cloudmark Inc., for use in the United States and other countries. All other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.
About Cloudmark
Cloudmark protects 2 billion global subscribers daily from an explosion in messaging abuses across more operator networks than anyone else. Only Cloudmark defends the world’s largest Mobile, Fixed and Social Media Providers, including AT&T, Comcast, MySpace, NTT, Swisscom and Time Warner Cable, with scalable and accurate protection against the widest range of existing and emerging messaging threats.