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Bartlesville nonprofit Martha's Task wants you to be aware of a cyber scheme by which criminals are using stolen credit cards, debit cards, and electronic checks to make donations and purchases without the knowledge of the victims.

 

Executive Director, Laura Walton says the issue came to the attention of Martha's Task in recent weeks as a total of 15 separate donations for small amounts were deposited into the nonprofit organization's PayPal account. The donations were all small amounts ranging from $1.32 to $1.98 and all came from donors whose names were not part of the organization's existing donor data base. Martha's Task is concerned these donations were made without the consent of the account holders and has reported concerns over the matter to Bartlesville Police Department, National Consumers League and PayPal, Inc.

 

Walton says Martha's task wants its regular and legitimate donors to know their contributions are safe and none of their information has been compromised.  They don't want to accept any stolen dollars.

 

The National Consumers League has been monitoring fraudulent donations to charities since 2013. Under this scheme, criminals make small donations - usually under $2 each - to legitimate charities to test whether a credit card, debit card or account is working. 

 

Walton urges you to check your PayPal accounts, bank accounts and credit card statements frequently to be sure all of the transactions are legitimate. Cybercrime continues to rise annually forcing both for-profit and nonprofit entities, as well as consumers,  to work to prevent losses.