Criminals already take advantage of Japan!

Criminals have already jumped on Japan's twin earthquake and tsunami disasters at record speed, security experts said today. Scams range from links to fake anti-virus downloads and phony donation sites to classic online swindles that rely on greed.  Authorities say "What's surprising this time is how quickly they picked up on the news," said Chet Wisniewski, a security researcher with U.K.-based Sophos. "We knew [scams] were coming, but they started appearing in record-breaking time, less than three hours after the earthquake."

Facebook has been used by cyber-crooks to collect information when users click on a link posing as CNN video footage of the tsunami that struck the eastern cost of Japan Friday, said Sophos in a blog post Sunday.  A record 8.9 magnitude earthquake in Japan mid-afternoon Friday, and a powerful tsunami struck its northeastern coast minutes later. The death toll may reach in the tens of thousands, according to recent reports.

Scammers are also flooding e-mail inboxes with messages asking recipients to donate money to relief efforts, said Eric Park, a Symantec researcher with the company's anti-spam team.  A Symantec researcher noted that other scams have appeared taking advantage of news of the earthquake and tsunami. "Symantec has observed a classic 419 message targeting the Japanese disaster," said researcher Samir Patil in a post to the company's security blog today. "The message is a bogus 'next of kin' story that purports to settle millions of dollars owing to an earthquake and tsunami victim."

A "419" scam is a long-used con -- named for a section in the Nigerian criminal code -- that tries to convince victims to advance funds in the hope of realizing a much larger return.  Crooks have also registered a large number of domains with URLs that may fool users into thinking that they're legitimate donation or relief sites, said Patil, a tactic that can also push those sites higher on search results.  It’s sad to see how quick people take advantage of a disaster an other peoples tragedy and good will, shows how little remorse people show towards the types of situations. So Beware!!!