Haiti Donation Scams, How Cybercriminals Take Advantage of the Haiti Disaster

Successful malware, phishing raids and scams basically rely on several major behavioral vectors cybercriminals exploit in order to compromise or take control of users’ systems, steal their data and money. Entertainment, curiosity, empathy and greed are just some of the human psychological features social engineering tactics rely on.

Calls for donations, voluntary help or to support noble causes are already on top of the e-news. How is one to distinguish between legit charity action initiators and shameless rip-off artists?

Watch Catalin Cosoi, Senior Antispam Researcher at BitDefender, explaining the bits and bolts of the dark masterminds’ latest donation scam exploiting the victims of the Haiti disaster. This is useful advice on what you can do to safely surf the Web and keep in touch with friends and family through e-mail and social networking.