Credit card thieves ‘give to charity’
July 9, 2007 by admin
Filed under News, News-Credit-Cards
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.
