New email virus masquerades as tsunami fundraising appeal
Howard Lake | 26 January 2005 | News
W32/VBSun-A is a new email virus with the subject line “Tsunami Donation! Please help!” which sets off a mass-mailing from the infected PC.
The body of the message reads: “Please help us with your donation and view the attachment below! We need you!”.
If opened, the tsunami.exe attachment that comes with the email creates a worm which searches for email address on the infected PC and then forwards itself on to them. It also attempts to launch a denial of service attack on an anti-spam website.
This is the second email virus that attempts to exploit the tsunami disaster. Given the proliferation of phishing and other online scams against financial institutions, it is not surprising that virus writers are turning their attentions to running fake charity fundraising appeals. It can only be hoped that this does not escalate and make genuine email-based fundraising appeals less trusted by the public.
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- MBlox and i-pop to handle SMS donations for MTV's tsunami concert (3 February 2005)
- US-based website passes itself off as the DEC Tsunami Appeal site (5 February 2005)
- Shelter fundraises online with affiliate programme (7 February 2005)
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.