Donors to animal charities vulnerable to illegal demands for money because of a hack into a database

NEWS and COMMENT: The Mail Online reports on a disturbing development which affects good people and high-profile people who donate to animal welfare charities. These people are now vulnerable to being conned by criminals making demands for money.

Hackers attacked a survey company which works with more than 40 charities. They stole surnames, home addresses, emails and the amount they donated to charities. The charities concerned include the RSPCA, Dogs Trust and Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. It is said that the information regarding hundreds of thousands of donors has been stolen.

For example, Friends of the Earth said that data from 93,000 of their supporters had been taken. They are taking the matter very seriously.

Battersea Dogs and Cats said that they had contacted those affected "to offer support and advice".

The RSPCA which is half a million supporters has also contacted them in emails about the hack.

There are concerns that as the hack took place six weeks ago that there may have been subsequent demands on these people since then who might have unwittingly paid up. If they are regular contributors to animal welfare charities and if they have the funds to make regular donations, they might fall foul to these cons.

The hackers got into the computers of a subcontractor, Kokoro, of a Surrey-based company called About Loyalty on August 9, which carries out surveys on the charities' supporters.

It is believed that many hundreds of thousands of donors have been affected. A spokesperson for Kokoro said: 'We are confident the incident has now been contained and there is no ongoing risk to our systems. We have notified those whose data has been impacted.'

The breach is being investigated by the Information Commissioner's Office which has the power to issue fines of up to 17.5 million or 4% of a company's annual turnover if a company or business fails to keep people's data safe.

Potentially and perhaps actually, some high-profile people are involved. For example, Sir Elton John is an ambassador for Battersea Dogs and Cats Home. Sir Brian May is another individual who is very closely involved with animal welfare charities. He's a wealthy man and it seems plausible that they may be targeted with phishing emails trying to con them out of money.

Phishing: the fraudulent practice of sending emails or other messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Battersea Dogs & Cats Home need cat foster carers (Aug 2023)

Perhaps the most famous cat and dog shelter in the world, Battersea Dogs & Cats Home have put out a call for cat foster carers. It seems that they have a level of demand for their services which they can't quite keep up with and they need foster carers to take up some spillover from their shelter in Battersea.

Foster carers take cats from the shelter into their homes and they become like agencies for the shelter. They work in partnership. Sometimes foster carers do better than shelter workers because a cat and dog shelter is inherently quite stressful for cats and dogs because there's lots of noise and lots of other animals and people.

Cat at Battersea. Image supplied.

In contrast, cat fosters have perhaps one or two cats and the whole environment is much calmer which helps to reduce stress which in turn can help to improve health and welfare particularly if the stray cat was rescued when suffering from health problems.

Battersea are timing their request for cat foster carers with International Cat Day which is August 8, yesterday. They say that being a cat foster carer is a rewarding and heartwarming experience.

It is also a good way to be with cats without owning them. The shelter pays all the expenses so you can almost be a cat owner for a set period of time before the cat is adopted without the expense. The problem is that you can become very connected to a particular cat and it can be very painful to give him or her up to the adopter.

Battersea said that the cost-of-living crisis "is affecting the number of cats coming into us". They added that in June this year 25% of rescue cats coming into their centres were relinquished because the owner could no longer afford to keep them and pay veterinary bills.

The RSPCA are going through a similar experience. They said that the number of unwanted pets is growing. They also said by the way that the number of abuse cases is growing in the UK. That's a worrying trend.

An advantage for cats being cared for by foster carers is that they are likely to present to adopters a better side to their character because, as mentioned, they are less stressed and therefore they are more likely to come forward and be confident which is what people adopting cats want to see. If you can find more about foster caring for cats at Battersea by visiting their website.