# US-based website passes itself off as the DEC Tsunami Appeal site

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2005/02/05/usbased-website-passes-itself-dec-tsunami-appeal-site/
- Published: 2005-02-05T00:00:00+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

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.

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