Subscribe to The Money StopNews Feed

Browse > Home / News, News-Credit-Cards / Credit card thieves ‘give to charity’

Credit card thieves ‘give to charity’

July 9, 2007 by admin  
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards

Leave a Comment

Charitable donations are commonplace on stolen credit cards, the information security company Symantec said last week.

It’s quite unlikely that card thieves are suffering pangs of conscience, though – small online charitable donations are an excellent way for thieves to check that the card is still valid.

Attempting to use an invalid card is one of the best tipoffs for law enforcement officials that the card is stolen.

However, quite apart from validation issues, making a small donation to a charity on a stolen card is much less likely to be picked up by checkers than an extravagant initial purchase.

According to Javier Santoyo, a manager at Symantec, “even the bad guys want to verify the other bad guys”.

Spokeswoman for the Red Cross Carrie Martin said: “This happens all the time. We have people at the Red Cross who deal with this type of activity.” She added that the charity had dealt with 700 such transactions in the past month alone.

Sometimes credit card numbers rather than the cards themselves are stolen. Holders are advised by issuers to check their statements carefully for unsanctioned purchases, even if small, and to alert them immediately if suspicious activity is detected.

Tags: best tipoffs, Attempting, time, Red Cross Carrie, online, online charitable donations

Tags:

Related Entries

  • Charity credit cards ‘help children in need all year round’
    • Consumers are advised that charity credit cards can help them reach children in need every day of the year.Today, Children in Need is celebrated around the UK with nationwide collections in expected to reach into
  • Charities Get Only A Small Percentage of Charity Christmas Cards
    • With Christmas just around the corner many consumers in the UK will be looking to buy charity based Christmas cards, which allow them to not only get the Christmas cards that they need for the
  • Charity ideas – great ways to give in the recession
    • With the recession still in full swing in the UK most households are trying to make cutbacks, and this includes having to try and save money on everything from going out and entertainment to grocery
  • UK Credit Card Consumers Should Be Watchful
    • The latest scam to defraud vulnerable credit cards holders in the UK has come to light in the Worcestershire area, where thieves pretending to be police officers or bank workers managed to steal credit cards
  • Credit crunch affect charities
    • According to recent reports around 25% of charities in the UK have seen the level of money coming in from consumers drop over the past twelve months, as cash strapped households rein in their spending
  • Can you afford to give to charity?
    • Just a couple of years ago many of us were happy to give generously to a range of worth causes, and we were prepared to whip out our debit or credit cards whenever there was
  • Available Types Of Credit Cards
    • Credit, credit, everywhere … Everywhere you look these days companies are offering you credit. There are hundreds of different brands of credit card available and there are dozens of different types of credit card too.
  • Credit card scam catches out MP
    • An MP has been caught out by a "mystery" credit card scam.Although there is no likelihood that the card has been cloned - in that the member for Waveney Bob Blizzard has not used it

Speak Your Mind

Tell us what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!