Since this is somewhat related,(and this thread is already a bit astray!) look at links before donating, or passing on any stories. This week a person (or group) posted several pictures claiming they were of Tsunami victims at the time a wave hit. The photos turned out to be a Tidal Bore in China, but the worst part the end line asked people to donate to the Red Cross International. The link was to a My Paypal account with a Amaozon look-a-like page. If one clicked on the Link it brought up Amazon.com's donation page for the Red Cross, but any payment would have been processed to the associated Paypal Account. I reported it to Paypal and Amazon when I discovered it and the site was shut down and account frozen that same day. I notified the person that sent it to me so they could also notify the person that sent it to them. I was informed by the sender that his friend that had sent him the notice had donated $500 and several of her friends that she had forwarded the message to had donated money to the site. The Paypal Account was emptied every 15 or 20 minutes by making so called purchases using the balance (apparently buying with money added to an account will not trigger any of Paypal's safeguards against fraud). So, be cautious and activate the bottom status bar of your Browser so you can see where links go before you activate them or so when you get there you can tell that they might be bogus.

ratscloset
aka John