KnowledgeProtect Your Charity Against Online Fraud

By Geneviève Cassan



From stories of stolen passwords to e-mail phishing schemes, fraud is an unfortunate risk of all e-commerce.

As more and more charitable donations are made online, non-profits have also become subject to fraud. Notably, fraudsters attempt methods of ‘card tumbling’ on charitable websites that undermine the social good your organization does. Card tumbling refers to a process in which fraudsters obtain a list of stolen credit card numbers and programmatically test their validity on charitable donation sites. In some cases, the volume of tumbling can be quite severe.

Despite these risks, charitable organizations should not refrain from accepting donations online. The web has transformed the fundraising industry, and made it more accessible for large audiences to contribute to important causes than ever before. The increase in online peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns – highlighted by the Ice Bucket Challenge -- over the latest several years is just one example of the proliferating positive impact small groups of individuals can have.

To ensure donors can still make a difference, there are many ways of safeguarding your organization from online fraud. Payment processors offer varying levels of risk management and fraud protection tools, including:

• Address Verification System (AVS)
• CVV and CVV2 matching
• Positive and negative database checks
• IP address verification
• BIN number validation
• Transaction velocity monitoring
• Global device intelligence
• Customizable risk rules

In conjunction with support for payment gateway fraud protection features, raisin has its own anti-fraud tools in place to prevent bots from attempting automatically scripted transactions, like a reCaptcha checkbox that can be added to events payment pages for users to verify that they are human.  

raisin is also P.C.I.-D.S.S. Certified and regularly assessed to ensure that payment information submitted for processing by a payment gateway passses through a secure, encrypted channel. We want to ensure that the donation process is as secure as possible for our clients!

To further discuss your organization's online security, get in touch with our business development manager here.