[Hidden-tech] Credit Card Fraud attempts at Charity site

[Christine Takacs]

Hi All You Smarties,
I wonder if anyone is familiar with the problem of stolen credit cards being tested on Charity sites? A website I am managing is currently a target of such attempts. A person is repeatedly trying to charge $.01 on hundreds of different cards.

It is a Joomla site, utilizing the Joom Donate plugin. We are using SSL and Verisign security certificates and requiring address matches. Also we are using Authorize.net and have set fraud filters so no fraudulent transactions are succeeding. I've read that this scheme happens on other more high-profile sites too- like Haiti Relief and Obama Campaign, etc. But it is still a concern and an annoyance to my client. There doesn't seem to be a way to capture this person's IP address to block it.

Researching the site's Google analytics, it looks to me like the frauds have used the following keywords to find the site:
inurl:index.php intext:cvv donate
allinurl:="view=donation"
inurl:index.php intext:donate cvv

Although I've done lots of web design, I'm fairly new to the back end and am by no means an engineer, so I wanted to ask a few dumb questions:
Can these credit card fraud attempts do any harm to a site or donation system?
Is there something we can do to dissuade attempts like this?

Thanks in advance for any helpful advice!

Best Regards,
Christine
................................................
Christine Takacs
Rapt Creative
82 Oak Grove Avenue
Brattleboro, Vt. 05301

802-221-4692
www.raptcreative.com

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