Online scams emerge in tsunami's wake

WASHINGTON, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Scam artists are posing as tsunami victims on the Internet in a bid to divert some of the millions of dollars flowing to relief efforts, security experts warned on Wednesday.

Crudely written appeals for help have begun to appear in e-mail inboxes, asking for donations through a Web site or an offshore bank account, the analysts said.

"It's only a matter of time before ... we have fully fledged Web sites that spoof well-known charities, for example," said Paul Wood, chief information security analyst at MessageLabs, an Internet security company.

Aid organizations have collected millions of dollars through the Internet since a tsunami claimed an estimated 150,000 lives from Indonesia to Africa on Dec. 26. Online retailer Amazon.com Inc. alone has collected $14.4 million for the American Red Cross through its Web site.

Similar scam attempts surfaced after the Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking attacks on the United States.

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