NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Scum scammer asks for Bitcoin donations for Orlando terrorist victims via Twitter
A scammer has targeted people wishing to donate following the Islamic terrorist attack on the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida June 12.
A fake Twitter account under the name of @PulseOrlandoUSA (since suspended) pretending to represent the nightclub was for a time soliciting Bitcoin donations with claims to buy bottled water and Oreo cookies.
The account included thousands of fake followers to make it appear to be legitimate, and then solicited donations by attaching the account to various hashtags associated with the tragedy to draw the attention of people following conversations about the terrorist attack.
According to Ars Technica, the Twitter account then directed followers to a shortened Web address to make donations; the web address linked to was desifreemovies.net, a domain that included fake registration details and an email account associated with the Hushmail anonymous email service.
Hundreds of people are believed to have been tricked into visiting the site, however, most quickly ascertained that it was a scam based on grammatical errors on a plain HTML page that include fraudulent links to Amazon.com, Inc.
The page itself suggested that if people had trouble with the links (which included purchasing bottled water) they should instead send Bitcoin to a specified address.
According to the cryptocurrency tracking site Blockonomics, the scammers only managed to raise 0.04293381 bitcoins (approximately $30) before the website itself was shut down.
Scum
While perhaps to be expected in this day and age, scammers targeting the good will of people following the worst terrorist attack on United States soil since 9/11 are literally the worst types of scum.
Thankfully the scam was short lived and only a small amount was taken.
On the positive side, the actual official fundraising effort in support of victims and their families, being run by Equality Florida, is going gangbusters, and at the time of writing had raised $4.1 million, including a $100,000 contribution from GoFundMe, Inc.
If you do want to support the victims of this extraordinary horrible event, visit the official Pulse Victims Fund page on GoFundMe here.
Image credit: fibonacciblue/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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