LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Cybersecurity experts in Little Rock are seeing an uptick in charity scams relating to the war between Israel and Hamas.
Christopher Wright is a cybersecurity expert in Little Rock. As a partner at his company, Sullivan Wright Technologies, he works to protect businesses from scams like the ones they're seeing now.
"Anytime there's any humanitarian need... a natural disaster or a war... there's always scammers looking for a way to take advantage of this," Wright said.
He explained that some scams attempt to take money while others try to steal information.
"I even went and found some that were just flat-out malicious," Wright said. "You opened the file, and it was just blatantly trying to harvest your email credentials to get into your account."
According to Wright, having protective software is the first step for someone looking to filter out scam emails.
"[Our company] spent a lot of time training our people to detect these, but we also have tools that filter these things out of email boxes before they get there," Wright said
But Wright also said those systems aren't always perfect, and people will likely have to verify themselves.
"When you're going through your email, be very skeptical of every email no matter what it says or who it says it's from," Wright said. "Don't immediately go, 'Yes, that's from that person.'"
He also recommended watching for emails that include a mismatched name and email address, grammar mistakes, or a suspicious URL when your mouse hovers over it.
Additionally, Wright advised that if you want to donate to a cause, make sure it's through a verified non-profit directly and find reputable organizations.
Wright discouraged the idea of donating through email.
"Don't ever unless you've got an established relationship with one of these charities where you're positive that you're getting that email from that charity," Wright said.