THE Jamaica Cyber Incident Response Team (JaCIRT) has issued a warning that “unscrupulous players” are attempting to benefit from Hurricane Melissa by using bogus websites to divert relief donations into their pockets.

Minister without portfolio in the Office of the Prime Minister responsible for science, technology and special projects Dr Andrew Wheatley told the daily Hurricane Melissa media briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister on Thursday that fraudsters, who are not necessarily in Jamaica, have been detected by JaCIRT’s monitoring systems.

According to Wheatley, the “multiple suspicious domains currently under development” appear designed to divert hurricane relief donations away from legitimate channels.

“Up to last night we identified eight such sites and just now it has been updated to 28 sites that are attempting to divert contributions, donations from legitimate sources. These malicious actors are creating fake websites with names deliberately similar to Jamaica’s official donation portal,” said Wheatley.

Already some of the fraudulent domains identified are Jamaicahurricanehelp.net, Jamaicahurricanehelp.org,
Jamaica-hurricane-help.com Melissareliefjamaica.net, Melissareliefjamaica.com, Melissareliefjamaica.org,
supportjamaicagovjm.com and supportjamaicagovjm.net.

“You recognise that the last two are very much similar to our official website. The main difference is that our official website ends with .gov.jm. What we have identified is that these sites are at varying stages of development but JaCIRT suspects that these sites may become active in the coming days. The only legitimate Government website for hurricane relief donations is https:www.supportjamaica.gov.jm,” Wheatley pointed out.

He said to protect themselves people who want to donate to Jamaica’s official Melissa relief effort should verify the Uniform Resource Locator (URL, the address that helps the web browser locate a specific webpage, picture, file, or other resource).

“We ask that persons who wish to donate type the address direct. Do not click links in unsolicited emails or social media messages, look for security indicators, make sure the site shows https: and look for a padlock icon, which speaks to the security of the site,” Wheatley advised.

“We are asking persons to be suspicious of urgent requests. Scammers create artificial urgency to bypass your careful judgement. We ask that you research any organisation. If you are donating to a charity, verify its legitimacy through independent sources. If you encounter a suspicious site, do not enter any personal or financial information, do not make any payments. Report the site immediately to JaCIRT at Jamaica.cirt@opm.gov.jm and you must also share this warning with friends and family as well.

“Hurricane Melissa has caused significant damage across Jamaica and the need for legitimate assistance is real and urgent, by staying vigilant against these scams we can ensure that charitable donations reach the Jamaican people who desperately need support,” added Wheately.

Also addressing Thursday’s media briefing Minister of Information Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon said, “There have been thousands on Jamaica’s legitimate domain giving contributions from around the world.”

“You heard it, there are people out there trying to get money via nefarious means and that’s why we created
.gov.jm because we know that we need to be able to say that something is legitimately the Government of Jamaica. There are some other legitimate sites that are out there, very important organisations, please do your research before you use any of them,” Morris Dixon said.