Now I know none of you are dumb enough to respond to email solicitations from the Red Cross, right? As with other times of crisis, the opportunists come out of the woodwork. Some of these scams look so real, they have the Verisign logo on them, and even take you to the official Red Cross website after you've given them a donation online. The ploy is, as usual, to collect credit card info for future fraudulent use.
Posting this in case you haven't heard or seen it in the news. Some of the better, more convincing ones are coming out of South America. My sister works for the Red Cross in Maryland, and has confirmed that the organization will never send you an email solicitation for donations, even in times of crisis.