Utilizing the same charity methods as the devastating Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 , the Stephan brothers in Texas created a fraudulent Salvation Army website to help victims of Hurricane Katrina that stole about $ 45,000 before being discovered .
Spear phishing emails are especially effective in stealing mass amounts of sensitive data and funds from companies , as scammers only need one employee to click a malware-infested link , hacking the company servers with little effort from the scammers themselves . Scammers use the trends acquired through social engineering to impersonate someone of authority that the employee already trusts , such as a boss or CEO . They also use conformity by telling the victim that other coworkers or friends have received and accepted the same invitation or data request . By combining authority with a sense of conformity , the swindler baits the employee into releasing sensitive company data without their knowledge . Help desks are especially vulnerable because they are there to help and usually fall for calls when the criminal poses as a tech serviceman or company official . Help desk employees are often taught to be friendly , but they have minimal security training , leading them to mindlessly accept a malware-infested email designed as a request for an item report or system log .
Swindlers utilize humanity ’ s nature toward sympathy and kindness to steal the fortunes of good people . Natural disasters are commonly used to target people ’ s sympathy towards the victims , exposing scams such as the 2010 Gulf oil rig explosion that prompted a Chicago company , InferAgis , to create a fake device that claimed to rectify the damages of spilled oil . People ’ s kindness was exploited , with InferAgis racking up nearly $ 20 million in profit from sympathy funds before the device was deemed useless . Utilizing the same charity methods as the devastating Chicago Fire of 1871 and the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906 , the Stephan brothers in Texas created a fraudulent Salvation Army website to help victims of Hurricane Katrina that stole about $ 45,000 before being discovered .
Con artists can also pose as the sympathetic ones , preying on people they know are under financial stress . They provide simple solutions to complex problems , often involving credit cards or mortgages through debt resolution scams and online payday loans . These financial assistance scams are
30 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Winter 2025 | www . MoAF . org