The ability for donors to go online and give to their favorite nonprofit has become a simple and convenient way to support an organization. And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many nonprofits moved their giving and fundraising campaigns online, allowing supporters to make donations via their debit or credit cards.
But while online contributions have been a solution for organizations to maintain financial continuity, it has also presented opportunities for cybercriminals who continue to view nonprofits as easy and vulnerable targets. As a result, card-testing fraud has become a major problem for organizations. Here’s what your clients need to know.
Card-testing is a fraud strategy used to validate a stolen debit or credit card. Using a stolen credit card’s numbers, cybercriminals go onto a nonprofit’s website or fundraising platform and make small, indistinctive donations to “test” the payment method’s authenticity. Once it’s validated, the information can be sold for a premium on the black market or used by criminals to make fraudulent purchases.
The nonprofit sector is considered the low-hanging fruit when it comes to cybercrimes. Why? Because organizations might not have the more stringent and up-to-date cybersecurity controls that their for-profit counterparts have. And because nonprofits accept donations that don’t include an actual exchange of products or services (where no shipping address is required), gifting/donation checkout platforms are generally very basic and simple to use and typically don’t include the types of safeguards as online merchants.
According to industry experts, the best line of defense against card-testing fraud is a multilevel approach that includes the following measures.
Online fraud comes in many different forms. Despite the very best safeguards and preventive measures, your nonprofit clients can unknowingly fall victim to a cybercrime. As more nonprofits modernize their websites and opt for virtual fundraising events, it’s important to educate your clients on how cybersecurity insurance can help protect their donors while mitigating the organization’s risk exposure.
Source – PropertyCasualty360.com