Monday, January 16, 2006 8:54 AM
BY DIANA LJUNGAEUS, diana@LApressclub.org
Are you terrified your credit card records are among the millions stolen? Our non-profit
became the unwitting conduit of credit card crooks in spite desperate attempts to involve local and federal authorities as the scam was unfolding. The good news is no Press Club or member information was stolen and the club was financially protected.
But the episode caused a lot of frustration and lost work time. And we weren’t even the target. The scammers victimized 2,000 strangers who have nothing to do with the Press Club. It began last summer when lots of money started pouring into our account through our on-line payment center. The “donations” were all for $39.95–an odd gift amount. We’ve had many unforeseen expenses as a club, but never had unforeseen income.
Nobody was hacking our system or targeting club members. But apparently by using the Press Club to charge $39.95 on stolen credit cards, the criminals were verifying whether the cards were good and had a cash balance available.
We didn’t get much help from our credit card broker or the police department that weekend. But eventually we got it all straightened out. The ordeal showed us that any online payment system needs to be extra secure.
This is why you still cannot do online payment on our website. But we’ll be back soon – and we’ll be secure!
