Lesson for Banks in Katrina Web Scammers Case
Those of us in the banking industry who have seen the leeches and low-lifes emerge in past disasters fully expected more of the same from the first moment we started hearing about the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. Sure enough, it wasn't long before we saw a 419-type email and other apparent scams.

The Florida Attorney General is taking aggressive action. Today, Findlaw reports that the Florida AG is suing the registrant of different Web sites that purport to raise funds to help hurricane victims. He says they are misleading contributors, as well as failing to comply with various Florida advertising and charitable organization laws.

Among the Web sites named:

katrinahelp.com
katrinadonations.com
katrinarelief.com
katrinarelieffund.com

Here is a link to a copy of the Complaint for Injunction, Damages, Civil Penalties and other Statutory Relief.

Financial institutions should read the complaint and think about the implications. The last thing you want is to set up an account for someone who is scamming the public. The Web site names sounded great. The content on the pages looked legitimate. But now there's a big old lawsuit alleging that things aren't as they appear. Don't become an unwitting accomplice of fraudsters. This is one area where doing due diligence is essential