Fergie's Tech Blog

Rita Brings New Wave of Net Profiteering

Brian Krebs writes in The Washington Post:

In a spree mirroring the online gold rush that accompanied Hurricane Katrina's landfall and aftermath, online speculators are scooping up hundreds of Hurricane Rita-related Web domain names, and Rita-themed Internet auctions have begun in earnest.

The quick proliferation of questionable activities has spurred the federal government into partnering with Internet service providers, computer security companies and anti-spam groups to shut down and prosecute owners of fraudulent sites, according to several participants in the ad-hoc task force.

Tom Liston, a security consultant with Washington-based Intelguardians.com and an incident handler with the SANS Internet Storm Center, worked with ISPs and law enforcement officials to shut down more than 40 Web sites falsely claiming to raise money to benefit relief organizations helping Hurricane Katrina victims.

Liston began tracking new Web site registrations containing the word "Rita" on Monday. So far, he has found more than 1,100 such sites, and he estimates that a fair number of them will be converted for use in Rita-related fundraising schemes in the coming weeks.

On Thursday, someone began auctioning off a burnt piece of toast with the meteorological symbol for a hurricane and the word "Rita" scraped onto it, promising to donate 40 percent of the final auction price to storm victims. EBay shut down the auction later that day.

posted by Fergie @ 9/23/2005 03:49:00 PM