Phishing scam targets Plan UK supporters
Howard Lake | 21 June 2006 | Blogs
Charities have been targeted by online fraudsters for some time, and their names misused, but now it seems the fraudsters are going after charity donors and supporters. According to Third Sector, the latest scam has involved phishing emails claiming to be sent by Plan UK programme directors and asking for donors to reveal their bank details.
Seventeen Plan UK donors said that they had received the bogus emails, which offered donors up to $5,000 or £2,700 a month to help in ‘processing’ money for the charity.
In response, Plan UK chief executive Marie Staunton has called on the Charity Commission to issue advice to charities on how to deal with these scams.
Plan UK has sensibly warned supporters of this scam on the front page of its website, advising them not to part with details of bank accounts or credit cards if they are at all suspicious.
Other charities, including the British Red Cross, have published similar preventative announcements on their websites.
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.