Topic: Children in Need donation warning

[Clive]

Security experts are warning that donating to the Children in Need appeal should be done very carefully.

According to Webroot, hackers are setting up sites that are designed to look like the official site or seem to be related to the appeal but actually aren't.

"We are seeing increases in spoofing and typo squatting around events that are driving traffic on the web. Internet users need to think about protection and good habits when surfing online for information or donating," said Nick Banks of Webroot.

Children in Need is a particularly attractive target for online criminals, Webroot said, because people are revealing their bank details. While this is perfectly safe if you are on the official site, if it's one of the spoof sites you could become the victim of a phishing scam.

"Unfortunately, because cybercriminals are targeting heavily trafficked websites, donors seeking to contribute to worthy causes have to use caution when visiting these sites," Banks said.

Webroot said that similar cases had been reported recently in the US when people had been trying to donate to politicians.

"Donors were giving their credit or debit card numbers to cyberthieves because they simply made a typographical error, or selected the wrong Website," said Banks.

Earlier this week, Web User reported that hackers were exploiting brand names by buying up domains that looked similar to the names of the companies.

You can find out more about the BBC's Children in Need appeal at

www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey
www.webroot.com

[Rik]

Useful and timely. Thanks, Clive.

[davy51]

I cant understand why hackers would do this

there are so many other places for them to do their crap

this is for kids godsake

[Rik]

It's money, I doubt they worry about where it was going. 

[mistybear]

And a childrens charity tends to tug at the heart strings and not your brain cells, so you're probably less likely to be suspicious.