Hello

Welcome to the first security update for 2010!

I’m sure you are aware of the tragedy in Haiti that has taken the lives of thousands and left many survivors waiting to receive aid

Unfortunately the bad guys use times like this to catch us off guard and will attempt to trick you into sending money to them

This is known as a 419 scam You’ll have seen similar scams where you are asked to help get some money out of a country and that you’ll get a large percentage if you’ll only provide your bank account details and help with the “administration fee”!

This particular scam is bit more straight forward and they pretend to be contacting you on behalf of the Red Cross and ask you to wire transfer money directly into their account

An example we’ve seen is below

Obviously there will variations and I’m sure we’ll see phishing attempts that ask you to visit a website and use your credit card over the coming days so please be vigilant

If you would like to make a donation you can visit the British Red Cross at www.redcross.org.uk

If you’re concerned about clicking any link claiming to be the Red Cross remember the safest way is to type the address yourselves

I hope this is useful, please distribute to your staff as appropriate

As always please get in touch with IBIT if you have any doubts on the legitimacy of an email or web page

If you would like to be removed from the security alerts mailing list please let me know