www.msnbc.msn.com
The Associated Press
Updated: 6:14 p.m. ET Sept. 8, 2005Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - Internet sites purporting to be charities related to Hurricane Katrina have been popping up faster than the FBI can look at them, and many appear to be fraudulent, the head of the FBI’s cyber division said Thursday.
There were roughly 2,300 Katrina-related sites by midday Thursday, FBI assistant director Louis M. Reigel said. The number had more than doubled just since Tuesday, Reigel said.
New sites are popping up “faster than we can pound them down,” Reigel said. The number of sites and the money being donated already exceeds what the FBI saw following the tsunami, he said.
The Red Cross, whose Web site is one of the most imitated, is working with the FBI to try to identify bogus sites, he said. Several Red Cross impostors are especially well done, he said.