Katrina disaster: Help *carefully*

Victims of the disaster deserve so much help, but anyone wanting to provide it via the Web needs to make sure it's a legitimate charitable Web page before acting. The Washington Post reports that there are already plenty of phishers and other online scammers preying on people's good intentions. Avoid Web sites with names like Katrinahelp.com, katrinadonations.com, katrinarelief.com, the Post says, and other sites that "ask for money to be sent through Paypal, [where] there is no way to verify who is getting the money." Also beware "phony e-mails pretending to solicit money from well-known charities." A good list of charity links is provided at Investors Daily, and there's advice at CBS News.