NEWS: Tsunami Scammer Charged

A Pittsburgh, PA man has been charged with fraud after sending hundreds of thousands of emails under the guise of disaster relief for the tsunami victims of SE Asia. Matthew Schmieder claimed to be a representative of charity Mercy Corps in his 800,000 emails, going so far as to insert logo images from the company's website in his messages. He invited recipients to send donations via Paypal to the company; the Paypal account, however, was in his name. He stated to FBI investigators that he concocted the scam in order to pay for car repairs.



Unfortunately, this is one of many scams in the wake of the tsunami disaster. Other fraudulent pleas for donations have circled the internet, and some hackers are distributing viruses under the guise of disaster relief.

Schmieder's Paypal account only received about $150 in donations from the scam.

A friend of mine is involved in a charitable organization, and shortly after the tsunami they had to discuss and consider whether or not to send their charity funds there and use it for tsunami relief, and there was quite a bit of apprehension because of scams and delays like that. They had been involved in the 9/11 relief funding too and were very much disappointed at the way the funds were delayed and mishandled there too. they of course decided to give the money anyway, but its a shame that so many charities and donators have to consider that sort of thing even.

These scammers, even outside of the money they steal, are causing people to die. That shoudl be taken into consideration when they are punished.

It's important to donate only to reputable charitable organisations. I make sure of that!