Birmingham, AL – A computer forensic expert from the University of Alabama is warning consumers that some charity Web sites for Hurricane Gustav might not be legitimate.
Gary Warner collects millions of email messages with the UAB Spam Data Mine and said more than 280 Internet domain names related to Gustav had been registered by Tuesday.
He said many use words such as ``charity,'' ``relief'' and ``support'' and some people have set up fake charities to lure people into donating funds in previous storms.
Warner said no fraudulent usage has been found so far, but warned consumers to be on their guard.
He said most of the addresses were probably created by domain speculators who hope to sell the name.
To be safe, he suggests donating online only to well-established charities such as the Red Cross and avoiding donating through click buttons.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)