FBI Snags Tsunami ScammerFBI Snags Tsunami Scammer

A Pittsburgh man arrested Thursday by the FBI is the first American to be grabbed for running a tsunami-related scam, court documents say.

Unemployed painter Matthew Schmieder, 24, admitted to authorities that he'd sent out some 800,000 bogus e-mails crafted to look like messages from Portland, Ore.-based humanitarian organization Mercy Corps, which has been soliciting donations on its Web site.

The FBI said Schmieder lifted Mercy Corps logos to make his messages appear legitimate, and created a PayPal account to receive donations. Schmieder didn't get away with the scam for long, however, since he netted only $150 from a single donor before the FBI grabbed him.

When Schmieder was arrested, he reportedly told FBI agents that he "thought it would be OK to keep the funds for his own use if he gave some of the contributions to charity," the court documents disclosed.

He also said he planned to use the money to fix his cars and pay some bills. "Everybody needs money," agents quoted Schmieder as saying.

Charged with fraud in court Thursday, Schmieder was freed on $25,000 bail and faces a preliminary hearing next week.

Scams popped up almost immediately after the earthquake and resulting tsunamis struck numerous countries in Southeast Asia, with government and private organizations warnings following shortly after that. http://www.techweb.com/wire/ebiz/57300466

Many of the schemes were phishing-style campaigns that enticed people to illegitimate Web sites, unlike Schmieder's cruder, albeit more direct, approach. NameProtect, a trademark and brand protection vendor, for instance, has identified more than 110 such phishing schemes since the tsunami hit on Dec. 26, 2004.