Every time disasters happen, humanity comes as one. Setting aside our differences, we embrace one another and help the nations in need. However, this also gives scammers the opportunity to take advantage of people's generosity by creating fake charities or donation schemes to make easy money.
These charity fraudulent schemes have many forms, including fake emails that trick people into providing personal information, social media accounts that impersonate others, and videos on TikTok donations. Beware of these scams!
Turkey Earthquake Phishing Email Scams
Sample phishing email
Sample phishing email
The website of this domain is a clickbait Muslim dating site.
Turkey Earthquake Fake Twitter and PayPal Scams
Source: Twitter
Don't be fooled by their heartwarming images! Look closely at the image above; this is AI-generated. It is perfectly designed to capture your heart so you will click the scam donation link.
Source: Twitter
There are also a lot of fake NGO websites and accounts that suddenly appear. Inspect and read the details carefully. Do not get fooled by their number of followers - those are bots!
Some scammers went the extra mile by creating a page and donating their own money so the page would look legit.
Check out more of these charity scams. Read more.
Trend Micro Has Your Back
What can you do? Don’t let the scammers get away with it. Remember to do your research, and stick to the big names. For further reference, this Middle-Eastern news website has published a good article with some helpful suggestions for who to donate to.
We would encourage readers to use our FREE Trend Micro Check tool and detect scams with ease: Trend Micro Check is an all-in-one browser extension and mobile app for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and dangerous links.
Check out this page for more information on Trend Micro Check. If you found this article interesting or helpful, please share it with your friends and family to help keep the online community safe. Feel free to leave a like and comment as well.
