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Top Attack·August 30, 2026·Cybersecurity PSA

When donating, support those in need, not a scammer

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U.S. Federal Trade Commission Consumer Alerts ↗
TL;DR
The fast version

By BCP Staff It seems like every day, a major weather emergency or natural disaster happens somewhere in the world. To help people affected by disasters like hurricanes, recent flooding in Nepal and Tibet, or recent earthquakes in Venezuela, Japan, and Colombia,…

Detailed briefing

What happened

To help people affected by disasters like hurricanes, recent flooding in Nepal and Tibet, or recent earthquakes in Venezuela, Japan, and Colombia, you might want to donate money to help.

Scammers know that and hope to steal money intended for disaster relief.

Why it matters

The practical risk is that convincing impersonation and social-engineering tactics can turn a single message, login prompt, or support interaction into account takeover or financial fraud. Consumers should treat urgency, requests for credentials, and unexpected payment instructions as signals to verify independently.

What you should do

Verify unusual requests through a trusted channel you initiate yourself. Do not use phone numbers or links supplied in a suspicious message. Use multifactor authentication where available, avoid password reuse, and review account activity after any interaction that may have exposed credentials or payment information.