Scamsters exploiting Haiti disaster

Aid agencies are warning New Zealanders to beware of scams when donating money to earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

They say fraudsters often take advantage of humanitarian disasters, and one fake email is already doing the rounds.

It begins: "UNICEF premises in port-au-Prince are badly damaged and our communication facilities have been destroyed. We kindly solidate of your Voluntarily support to help the affected women and children without Shelter at Haiti."

The email then asks the recipient to donate to a false email address, care of a non-existent agency "secretary".

The poor English and grammar should be a giveaway, but some people have given without thinking it through.

Unicef executive director Dennis McKinlay was not aware of the particular scam, but urged anyone with concerns about any suspicious email to phone the organisation immediately.

"If you are not at all sure ring us on 0800 243-575 and we can tell you," he said.

Mr McKinlay said legitimate appeals would be advertised as being on secure pages and include proper logos and branding.

It was "pretty distressing" that people tried to take advantage of others' generosity, he said, but those behind the scams were probably also in developing countries.

"And in poverty ... so I have a bit of sympathy for them, but it is still dishonest."

Scamwatch - a website set up by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to alert New Zealanders to hoaxes - has posted a warning on its website.

Ministry spokesman Richard Parlett encouraged people to report any dubious charities to the website.

Oxfam spokeswoman Janna Hamilton said the first step was to check who sent the email.

"If it's credible, you must have had some contact with them in the past, for them to have got hold of your email," she said.

Any NZ aid organisation would also have an 0800 number.

WARNING SIGNS
* Bad grammar, poor English
* Unknown email senders
* No 0800 phone number
* Personal email address as contact point
* Unprofessional or non-existent branding/logos