Beware of scammers – Nepal earthquake disaster will unleash wave of bogus emails and websites

Flintshire Trading Standards are warning residents to watch out for bogus donation emails and websites.  
Nepal experienced a massive earthquake on Saturday followed by aftershocks, which caused major devastation.

Unfortunately disasters like these present heartless criminals with an opportunity to release a wave of scams and malware in the form of scam e-mails and bogus websites. These will be aimed at appealing to people’s genuine good nature, and will be requesting donations towards the disaster relief fund.

The bogus websites and emails will be aimed at appealing to people’s genuine good nature, and will request donations towards the disaster relief fund.There is anticipation that there will be a flood of e-mails, bogus websites and social media activity, from scammers, pleading for donations for the disaster relief efforts.

The messages will include malicious codes designed to infect computers with viruses, spyware or Trojan horses. The purpose of these will be to infect your computer and obtain your financial details.
If you are planning on donating to the Nepal Earthquake Disaster Relief Fund, make sure you check you are donating to a genuine charity. You can contact the charity directly either through their known and trusted website address, telephone or their own charity shop.

Check things like do they have their address and contact details on the website, do you recognise the name of the charity. If you don’t research them before donating. Overall never respond to unsolicited e-mails, and never click on any of the links contained in those e-mails.
You can report your experience with scam e-mails to Flintshire Trading Standards via 03454 040506