The Charity Commission is urging charities to be aware of the trend of online extortion or ‘ransom’ demands.
It said its advice was particulary aimed at “charities which operate overseas and/or deal with international partners”.
A number of businesses have been targeted recently and the Commission said charities were also "vulnerable".
The regulator said charities should be aware that:
- a number of businesses throughout the UK have received online extortion demands from a group calling themselves ‘RepKiller Team’
- the group have sent emails demanding payment of between £300 - £500 in Bitcoins [a form of digital or ‘crypto’ currency] by a certain date and time
- if their demand is not met, they have threatened to launch a cyber-attack against the organisation and damage its reputation by automating hundreds of negative reviews online
- the demand states that once their actions have started, they cannot be undone.
