Disaster attracts hi-tech dregs of society

January 31st, 2006

Modern technology has spawned a variety of hoaxes in the wake of the tsunamis, from fraudulent internet appeals for donations to a bogus text message warning people not to eat seafood from regions affected by the disaster.

Tasmanian police have announced an investigation into a website that purported to be collecting donations for the Red Cross tsunami fund and carried a postal address in the Hobart suburb of Glenorchy.

The website, www.incybernet.com, had featured the Red Cross appeal logo, but was inaccessible by late yesterday due to increased web traffic. It claimed to have raised $10,000 for victims of the disaster.

A Red Cross spokesman said the aid group had never heard of Incybernet, nor had the Australian Council for International Development, which maintains a list of all major charities.

Emails falsely claiming to be from Oxfam and urging people to donate money were also doing the rounds in Hong Kong, according to police.

The fraudulent messages, which claimed to be from the local branch of Oxfam, urged donors to deposit money in a bank account in Cyprus. Hong Kong police said they were unsure whether any money had been raised by the perpetrators.

In Britain, a 40-year-old man was charged in connection to a series of hoax emails sent to friends and relatives of those missing since the disaster.

The email informed recipients that their loved ones were dead.

Purporting to be from the "Foreign Office Bureau" in Thailand, it was sent to people who had placed appeals for information on a website set up by the Sky News television network.

The man was charged with malicious communication and causing a public nuisance, and will appear in a London court overnight, Australian time.

Authorities in Singapore and India warned of hoax mobile phone text messages that claimed a "very dangerous virus" was being spread via seafood in the regions affected by the tsunami.

The message read: "Alert everyone: very dangerous virus, Zulican virus is spreading through seafood. So please avoid eating seafood and pass this message to all of your friends."

But officials said the Zulican virus did not exist and that eating fish in affected regions remained safe.