As it has been a practice before on disasters of magnitude, malicious/fraudulent email scams are being spread over the recent Philippines typhoon disaster. These emails might contain malicious links or attachments. Beware of such social engineering attempts.

To help you distinguish whether the email is a scam or not, you can do the following:

1. Review the Federal Trade Commission’s Charity Checklist.

2. Verify the legitimacy of the email by contacting the organization directly through a trusted contact number. Trusted contact information can be found on the Better Business Bureau’s National Charity Report Index.