I do salute the stoic resilence of the Japanese people in the face of disaster. But I think the award for the most responsive and 'quick to market' mob goes to the internet scamsters!
Within an hour of the news of the disaster in Japan, invitations to make donations for tsunami relief came into my inbox.
In fact, so creative and impressive are these fake requests, even the Red Cross and UN looks so puerile in comparison.
The fake donation seekers must have made a killing; with the abundance of social media and the multitude of channels to reach out to hundreds and millions of well meaning victims. I am willing to take a punt on the fact the scamsters must have collected
more money than all the legitimate relief organisations put together!
I am sure these artists will be dining out on this disaster for years to come - selling fake creams for radiation, early disaster warnings, radiation free items...
Excellent use of Twitter, Facebook, URLs and good old fashioned emails.
Certainly a subject of detailed research. Banks and financial institutions must hire these scam operators to lead their social media strategy execution!
More details here - http://bit.ly/hll0uB