by Ryan McKeen
Earlier this week I wrote about credit card thieves stealing my card and trying to make a charitable donation with it.
The article I linked to from CNET said the reason thieves make charitable donations is to see if the card is active under the theory that charitable donations are less likely to be noticed by credit card companies than say the purchase of a $5,000.00 flat screen television.
I have another theory. This kind of fraud is very large scale. It’s organized crime. Thieves buy and sell thousands of numbers at a time hoping that some will work and knowing that many won’t. It’s the economics of scale.
When I got my card and the attempted fraudulent charge was to a charity it caught me off guard. I would have expected a fraudulent charge to have been at a gas station or for electronics or a large purchase at a store in Argentina. It was none of those things.
The charity that the thieves tried to use was a very large charity. One that I suspect most Americans have donated to. I had made a donation in the past.
In addition to being caught off guard, having given to the charity in the past, part of me felt guilty about saying a charge to a good charity was fraudulent. Part of me wanted to have made that nice donation to a reputable charity. I suspect I’m not the thieves target demographic.
I imagined if my grandmother got the call. Given the same set of circumstances she may have said that she made the charges. Doing so may have delayed the account from being closed and allowed the thieves to purchase a new surround sound system or make a cash advance.
Make no mistake about it, this kind of sophisticated fraud targets the elderly.
Connecticut has some fairly aggressive laws to protect persons who have their identity stolen. If you have had your identity stolen consider contacting a lawyer.
Conservators and persons with power of attorney should carefully be on the look out for unauthorized charitable donations.