Facebook Haiti Earthquake Scam Artists Surface

Scam artists are reportedly using the desire held by millions to help earthquake victims in Haiti to build fan pages and groups on Facebook.

Facebook has reported that fake members are urging people to join Haiti earthquake Facebook groups with the promise that $1.00 will be donated for each person that joins the fan page or group. In fact, there is absolutely nothing backing that promise. While no money is actually changing hands, the reality is that many believe that they are helping earthquake victims in Haiti, at least in some small way, by joining these Facebook fan pages or groups.

Facebook has been trying to spread the word that these groups are phony and that no contribution will be made by Facebook nor the group and fan page administrators. One Haiti earthquake group reportedly reached 1.5 million members before Facebook disabled it.

The motivation to attract large numbers of people to a group can range from the benign to the malicious. Many groups on Facebook exist simply to exist, it would seem, and to attract as many people as possible. But large numbers of fans in a single group could present a problem if somebody who wanted to spread a virus, for example, could more easily target those that they have quick access to.

In any case, to misrepresent charitable efforts of any sort, and particularly as focused on something as urgent and devastating as the Haiti earthquake rescue and recovery efforts, is beyond the pale and could lead to increased regulation of Facebook groups in general.

The good news is that there are many Facebook groups offering information and motivation on how to help Haiti earthquake victims through legitimate and monitored means.

Several Facebook groups have been established, for example, that promote the use of texting 'Haiti' to 90999, which is a United States government recommended means of quickly sending $10 per text to help in the earthquake recovery efforts.

Social networking and peer to peer interconnectedness can be fantastic methods to quickly spread the word about important issues; the Facebook status bra color grass roots initiative from several weeks ago as a great example. But social media is not immune to the dark side of human behavior. For the latest evidence, consider the Haiti earthquake scam on Facebook.

Source: Bob Sullivan, "Facebook Full of Fake Haiti Fundraisers", msnbc.com