BRITISH volunteers travelling to Thailand to help victims of the tsunami are being tricked out of their money and identity documents in an internet scam.

An increasing number of youngsters say that they have fallen prey to bogus websites appealing for volunteers to work on relief projects, which often turn out to be non- existent.

Some have lost their cash and had passports and credit cards taken from them by fraudsters posing as charity workers who meet them on arrival in Thailand.

Hundreds of Britons are working at their own expense in the stricken areas of southern Thailand on reconstruction and environmental projects.

Some arrivals said that they were taken to remote villages and abandoned after parting with their money. A number also handed over their passports to supposed charity organisers who said that they needed the documents for 24 hours to obtain the necessary paperwork to work in sensitive and restricted areas.

Kerry Dunstan and a Manchester University friend flew to Thailand last month to work on a project rebuilding a fish farm close to the coastal village of Ban Nam Khem, where up to 3,000 people are believed to have been killed.

“I saw the appeal for helpers on a website,” she said. “Both of us thought this project would help with our university course and so we signed up. It looked genuine. It even had testimonies from supposedly other British volunteers and a telephone number and e-mail address.

“We were told it would cost us $350 (£185) each for food, water, board and lodgings, transport and equipment we would need during a month there, as well as paying our own air fares.”

The pair were met as promised at Phuket airport and, as night fell, taken on a two-hour drive north. As they entered a village where their escorts told them that they would be based, the two women, both 21, saw work going on to replace a fish farm destroyed by the Boxing Day tidal wave.

Their escort told them that they would be staying with a family for their first night and would be introduced to other Western volunteers the next morning after sleeping off their jet lag. They parted with all their cash and identity documents.

“We began to worry the following morning when our contacts didn’t return,” Ms Dunstan said.

“The Thai family we were lodging with could not speak any English and we couldn’t explain why we were there.

“We ventured out to where people were building new tanks for a fish farm but the people there knew nothing about a charity project. Of course we felt stupid, but also scared.”

It took two days before someone was found by local people who could speak enough English to rescue the women and take them to a charity centre nine miles away.

Bridget Shank, who runs the Tsunami Volunteer Centre at the Khao Lak Nature Resort, said that the organisation had sheltered a number of young Britons who had been victims of similar scams.

“Lots of organisations have sprung up here and it can be hard to tell which are genuine,” she said.

The centre is linked with the Mirror Foundation, a Thai charity, and volunteers pay 100 baht (£1.30) a day for their meals and accommodation. It knows the whereabouts of its 150 people from 30 countries.

John Carr, the internet adviser for National Children’s Homes, said: “It is despicable that conmen take advantage of the goodwill of young people who want to help out in the aftermath of a tragedy.”

The Thai police said that they were carrying out inquiries but added that it was difficult to trace those behind the bogus websites.

PREYING ON THE DEAD AND LIVING

• Conmen are using identities stolen from missing tsunami victims to access financial accounts and obtain credit cards
  
  
• Identity thieves set up fake websites, featuring victims’ photographs and bogus accounts of relief efforts. Others pose as private investigators and contact survivors promising to find missing loved ones and family treasures — for a price
  
  
• E-mail fraudsters are using appeals for help to gain access to computers. Financial data and other information are stolen when the recipients click on links in the documents
  
  
• Volunteers should investigate any organisations before offering to help groups advertising on the internet. Genuine charities will have internet links if they are involved in tsunami relief efforts. Check if the group has links to known charities. Contact organisations in the region to see whether they have more information about the schemes

Times recommends

• University black hole as applicants surge
• Students to be offered 'no-fee degrees'
• Women are outperforming men at university