Update: Japan Quake Scams

A tragic 9.0 magnitude undersea mega thrust aka the Great Eastern Japan Earthquake struck Japan on Friday, 11 March 2011. Unfortunately, the quake triggered an extremely destructive Tsunami, the perils of which continue till date. While the quake itself was devastating for millions of Japanese, some netizens continue to take advantage of this mishap to serve their own ends. Instead of showing mercy to the Japanese victims, some online fraudsters are trying to use this misfortune to raise money and harm visitors through fake links, Trojans and virus attacks.

Yes, we are talking about the Japan Quake Scams. We have already experienced online security problems in the past, the Haiti earthquake in the year 2010 and the most recent earthquake in Wellington, New Zealand. The scammers didn’t waste time and created hundreds of scam sites mimicking both PayPal and Red Cross. After the Hurricane Katrina over 4,500 websites appeared attempting to collect the funds.

Apparently, the Japan quake was another source of undisputed attack on online privacy which led to security threats to the people worldwide. Within minutes of tragedy striking, the scammers launched scores of Japan earthquake and Tsunami scams. Internet Security specialists declared that the scammers have “set up virus-laden sites and also intended to use the Japan incidents as levers for fund raising”.

In light of such dreadful scams, we highlight some of the things you could do to protect your identity online:

1. Do not click on unknown links saying Japanese funds which you find in your mail inbox. Check with the URL spellings before you click.
2. Never click on pop-up security warnings unless you know for sure they’re messages from your installed security software.
3. FBI issued guidelines to protect people who are eager to make donations to report complaints to Internet Crime Complaint Center regarding any suspicious charity solicitations and they can even be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud.
4. Do not give your credit card details, telephone numbers to any charitable organization which could be an identity theft too.
5. Be aware of the internet security protocols like, generally, wherever we provide our credit card details like PayPal, it comes with a URL https// (‘s’ stands for secure) and not http//. So, check the URL before you give out your card details.
6. Donate funds to the trustworthy sites only like American Red Cross or other established Charitable Organizations.
7. Use a virtual private network as a shield to protect your online privacy and avoid security threats.
8. A security firewall can enable you to protect your system(s) on a network from being attached by unauthorized access, virus and Trojans.

As much as we encourage people to raise funds for the victims of Japanese Tsunami, we want to make sure that you are not being duped and that you don’t become a victim of such security threats. Maintaining online privacy has become a challenge for many. However, being aware of online scams and being vigilant is important to avoid such security threats. Having a private VPN service can help you protect yourself from such scams, possibly the best way to hide yourself online!

When people search for “Japan Earthquake” to learn about the latest news in Japan, a number of hoax websites show up in the search engines. Unfortunately, people who really wanted to help the earthquake victims were duped by these fake donation sites and numerous Japan quake scams. When you click on any of the scam sites, a popup activates and Malware gets downloaded in the PC automatically.

What’s worse is that these hideous scams are spread all over the internet, across Facebook and other top social networking sites too. So, if you get a link through Facebook called Tsunami video, PLEASE do not click. It’s a scam!!! The link will take you to a website which pretends to be youtube.com, instead you get duped into downloading virus to your PC.