In the Internet age of technology, malicious spammers and computer hackers have replaced masked criminals and purse-snatchers. Cyber thieves can strike any time and everyone is considered a target.

In the wake of the tragedy that fell upon the people of Haiti, cyber thieves set up sham Web domains and sent out seemingly official e-mails to people, soliciting donations for relief efforts. Thousands of dollars did not reach the starving Haitian children, but instead went into the pockets of cyberbandits.

Kenneth L. Voss, director of computing services at University of Missouri-St. Louis, sent out a mass e-mail to all students and faculty, warning them about Haitian Internet fraud. “The sites that were the scams themselves were coming up in the top 10 on Google when you searched Haiti. At that time, we felt a need to notify students and staff,” Voss said. The first suspicious e-mails spotted were sent from a site pretending to be the British Red Cross and asked people to wire the money through a Western Union money transfer. The e-mail contained many grammatical and spelling errors and the British Red Cross said it was an unfortunately well-put-together fraud. Their e-mails may offer services that “help people locate ones who may be disaster victims, or may be phishing scams that are set up to look like legitimate Haiti relief organizations,” Voss said. “Never send your account name or password in an e-mail to anyone; no legitimate business including a university will ever ask to give you account information via e-mail.”

Recently, Facebook, Twitter and MySpace accounts have all been created by persons claiming to be victims of the earthquake and asking for donations.

UM-St. Louis students are doing as much as they can to protect friends and family. “As far as my family and friends go, I just try and give them more information and let them know they need to do research themselves,” Phillip Patton, sophomore, said.

No one is completely safe from Internet scams like this one, but to protect your wallet, here are a few simple rules to follow on the Internet:

1. Do not respond to any unsolicited (spam) incoming e-mails. If you do not recognize the sender, then it is most likely a spam e-mail.

2. Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as surviving victims or officials asking for donations via e-mail or social networking sites.

3. Always make sure you verify the legitimacy of the nonprofit organizations by utilizing the various Internet-based resources that confirm the group’s existence.

4. Never give your personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions. Providing such information may compromise your identity and make you vulnerable to identity theft.