Fake donation alert: This is how earthquake aid sent to Turkey is stolen
After the earthquake disaster that hit Turkey, aid continues to reach earthquake victims around the world. However, the aid has also mobilized scammers.
British public broadcaster BBC reported that security experts have drawn attention to cases of fraud-related donations. According to the BBC report, some groups on the Internet are transferring international donations to their own accounts by calling “Donate to Turkey and Syria.”
The scammers transfer the money transferred to real foundations to their PayPal or cryptocurrency accounts with the donation links they place in the videos.
An account that collects donations on a TikTok live stream.
The BBC drew attention to the methods used by scammers and warned those who want to donate to Turkey to be careful. For example, on TikTok, video content producers can accept digital gifts. Some TikTok accounts ask for donations by sharing images of the earthquake in Turkey.
In a three-hour live stream on TikTok, a Chinese man collected donations by showing videos of seismic zones in Turkey. It is also noteworthy that the images that are said to belong to Turkey in some posts belong to different places.
Speaking to the BBC, a TikTok spokesperson stated that they are working on the platform to prevent those who make fake money from the earthquake disaster in Turkey.
This visual, made with artificial intelligence, is used under the name of helping the victims of the earthquake in Turkey.
It is noted that some of the images used are not real.
For example, the image of a Greek rescuer rescuing a girl in the earthquake zone, which was also shared in the Turkish press, is not real. The Greek newspaper OEMA reported that this image was prepared by the Greek Fire Department using artificial intelligence. It was noticed that the firefighter in the image had 6 fingers.
According to BBC news, the money is being transferred to crypto accounts under the name of earthquake relief on a social media site with pornographic content in Russia.
On Twitter, scammers try to scam users with fake donation accounts. Cyber security experts emphasize that scammers are trying to gain visibility on social media by sharing messages from famous names about the earthquake.