More Credit Card Fraud - Robin Hood Style

If you are a credit card thief, how do you tell if a stolen credit card number is valid?

There are programs that will analyze the number to make sure the number is OK. But how do you make sure the card is usable?

How about making an on-line donation of a few dollars to a charitable organization? Although the credit card companies look for anomalous transactions (do you normally buy products from a retail store in NYC?), an on-line transaction to the national Red Cross (for example) might not hit the credit card fraud radar.

Symantec reports they've seen this kind of activity. See this article from Network World: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/070607-credit-card-thieves.html .

Do you watch your credit card transactions? How often?

The next time you hit the ATM, get the last 10 transactions on your account. Don't wait for your monthly statement, and then learn that your available credit has suddenly gone down to zero.