Manchester Police Warn of Boston Marathon Donation Scams Online

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The City of Manchester posted the following warning issued by the Manchester Police Department. 

Police are warning residents that the Boston Marathon tragedy is now being used as a "lure" by scam artists who are setting up fake charities online and recruiting donations through social media sites, including Facebook and Twitter.

Following is the alert and what police want consumers to know about such scams.

Individuals wasted no time registering domain names related to the explosions at the Boston Marathon. Some of the domains are likely to take advantage of those interested in learning more details about the explosions. Others will likely target individuals looking to contribute to fundraising efforts. It is unclear what each registrants intent may be, but historically, scammers, spammers and other malicious actors capitalize on major news events by registering such domains. Within four hours of the incident in Boston over 115 .net or .com domains had been registered. 

In addition to fake domains, malicious actors may also create fake social media accounts with similar intent. A Twitter account @_BostonMarathon was created shortly after the explosions took place. The account stated it would donate $1.00 for each retweet, and was crafted to closely resemble the legitimate Boston Marathon Twitter account (@BostonMarathon).  The bogus account has since been suspended by Twitter; however, the likelihood that similar social media accounts will surface remains high.

Manchester Police recommends that all persons looking to donate money in support of those affected by the Boston tragedy rely on official fund raising charities such as the American Red Cross.

Police also recommend residents exercise caution when clicking on links or interacting with social media accounts that claim to represent the best interests of those involved in this incident. Additionally, when searching for updates on the story, it is safest to go directly to trusted news sources rather than conducting general search engine queries.