The FBI is already warning the public to be wary of scams involving people looking for hurricane relief donations.

None of these scams have been reported locally, but when there’s a disaster, the scam artists aren’t far behind, said Officer Barry Pruitt, spokesman for the Bowling Green Police Department.

After hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Ivan, along with tsunamis in Asia and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, criminals used the events as a means of fraud, according to the FBI.

With all the various relief efforts coming up, people need to be aware, Pruitt said.

“The American Red Cross and The Salvation Army are probably the best avenues for people to make sure their donations are safe,” he said.

Scam artists have created Web sites similar to those of legitimate charities, Pruitt said, and can sound very convincing over the phone when soliciting donations.

“These scam artists are very skilled liars,” he said.

The safest thing is to go to the national Red Cross or Salvation Army Web sites (www.red cross.org and www.salvation army.org) to donate, said James N. Hendricks, Supervisory Senior Resident Agent for the FBI in Bowling Green.

There have been examples of scam artists copying the less complex local sites to perpetrate their scams, he said.

With a hurricane and two tropical storms potentially coming, it wouldn’t be surprising to see scams shortly follow, Pruitt said.

“These are the types of scams that could go unnoticed,” he said. “People would think the donation had gotten to where it was supposed to go and not realize they’d been scammed.”

That may be why locally no one has reported being taken advantage of through a disaster scam, Pruitt said.

The FBI is also worried about potential donors clicking on e-mail donation links, Hendricks said.

“These links could result in … programs being downloaded onto their computer, which would allow them to be further victimized through the use of their personal information,” he said.

The FBI offers the following advice to avoid these types of scams:

• Do not respond to unsolicited e-mail.

• Be skeptical of people representing themselves as officials soliciting via e-mail for donations.

• To ensure contributions are received and used for intended purposes, make contributions directly to recognized organizations rather than relying on others to make the donation on your behalf.

• Validate the legitimacy of the organization by directly accessing the recognized charity’s or aid organization’s Web site rather than following an alleged link to the site.

• Attempt to verify the legitimacy of the organization by using various Internet-based resources, which also may assist in confirming the actual existence of the organization.

• Do not provide personal or financial information to anyone who solicits contributions because of the risk of identity theft.