Online scams pose as Kerry campaign fund-raisers

1.00pm


WASHINGTON - Scam artists posing as fund-raisers for Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry are trying to trick internet users into sending them money, an internet security firm said on Tuesday.

The Kerry campaign said it had asked the Justice Department to investigate.

Two separate mass email "spam" campaigns were uncovered that ask users to contribute to Kerry's presidential bid, but direct the money to websites in India and Texas that are not affiliated with the campaign, said the security firm SurfControl, which makes internet content filters.

Such "phishing" scams will likely become more commonplace as the presidential campaign heats up, SurfControl vice president Susan Larson said in a news release.

"Phishers and other scam artists are masters of leveraging timely events to exploit the unwary," Larson said.

Kerry campaign spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign was aware of the situation and had asked the Justice Department to investigate.

Kerry's campaign is no longer accepting donations, after receiving the Democratic nomination last week, so any email money solicitations purporting to come from the campaign would not be legitimate.

Both Kerry and President Bush, the Republican candidate, have said they will rely on public money rather than private funds after accepting their party's nominations.

A Kerry spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Both Kerry scams were dated August 1 but the websites behind them were no longer operational, SurfControl said.

Online records show that one of the websites, www.johnkerry-edwards.org, is registered to a woman in New Braunfels, Texas. A call to the listed phone number was not immediately returned.

The other website, www.yahoogoogle.biz, is registered in Jaipur, India. No phone number was provided.

The official Kerry website is www.johnkerry.com.

Phishing incidents have become increasingly common over the past year as scam artists pose as banks and online businesses in attempts to collect bank-account numbers, credit-card numbers and other sensitive personal information.

June saw 1,422 new incidents, up from 176 in January, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group, a financial-services industry task force.

Most phishing websites were online for less than three days as fraud perpetrators attempted to stay one step ahead of law enforcers, the group said.

- REUTERS