US-based website passes itself off as the DEC Tsunami Appeal site
Howard Lake | 5 February 2005 | News
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) and the website developers London Web Communication, report that a website being run from America is purporting to be the official DEC Tsunami Appeal Web site.
The site at decuk.org appears to be run by an individual for their own benefit. It uses an old version of the genuine Disasters Emergency Committee website.
The domain name was registered on 1 February 2005 and shortly afterwards the site was promoted via spam emails with the subject line “Urgent Tsunami Earthquake Appeal”.
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Nicky Wolfe, Commercial Director at London Web Communication who developed and host the official DEC site, said: “We were made aware first thing this morning of this deception and immediately took steps to track down the perpetrators. We very quickly traced the rogue website to a web hosting company in the States. The company in the States is now assisting in tracking down the individuals concerned whom it seems are operating out of Romania.
“It is very important that any member of the public who has the slightest suspicion when asked to donate that they contact us at London Web Communications immediately or a representative from the DEC. We have to ensure that everyone who donates money to this very worthwhile appeal, actually has their donation going to the benefit of the right people.”
The DEC wound down its public appeal last week and is no longer actively encouraging donations.
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.