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Hurricane Katrina and Rita Victims need your help
Hurricane Katrina devastated the coastal regions of Louisiana through Alabama and severely damaged New Orleans. Hurricane Rita devastated the coastal regions of eastern Texas through western Louisiana. Hurricane Wilma devastated a wide swath from Naples to Fort Lauderdale. Relief organizations of all kinds mobilized to provide help and support. Organizations such as the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army primarily need your financial help to support those left homeless and its volunteers in the field. Many organizations have united to help the Gulf Coast recover from Hurricane Katrina. But sadly, when disasters occur, scammers looking for a quick buck inevitably follow. The FBI has reported that as as many as 4,000 websites claimed to offer help to victims and that about 60 percent of them were probably scams. Besides fraudulent websites, the most common Hurricane Katrina Internet-related scams are e-mail solicitations, a practice called "phishing," asking for a donation for Katrina's victims. When an unsuspecting donor provides a credit card number or makes an electronic payment, the money is pocketed by the scammer and identity theft is a possibility. Rip-off attempts based upon the notorious "Nigerian fee scams" are made the rounds. Other e-mail scams don't even require a reply. Messages with Katrina-related subject lines and file attachments carrying Trojans or viruses can infect your computer if you open the files. Plus, chain letters (such as "victims receive $1 every time you forward this message") and messages that used interest in the disaster to sell unrelated and often bogus products were circulating. Common sense is your biggest ally in protecting yourself against these scams. Here are several tips to help protect yourself against scammers:
Learn more about avoiding Hurricane Katrina and other charitable-giving rip-offs at the Better Business Bureau's BBB Wise Giving Alliance website: www.give.org. Consider only known reputable organizations and don't overlook the church. For more information, go to:
Wider Church Ministries
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August and September of 2005 saw
three massive hurricanes reach incredible
strength. Two plowed into states along the northern gulf coast while the third
ripped across Southern Florida.