Gee, Thanks: Donations with a Stolen Credit Card

Some fraudsters have become generous -- with other people's money, donating to charities with stolen credit cards to verify the numbers are valid before selling them, the security firm Symantec Corp. said Friday on its blog.

Unverified cards fetch up to $6 while verified cards can bring up to $18, said Javier Santoyo, a manager at Symantec. "Even the bad guys want to verify the other bad guys."

The verification method has become popular because the monitoring software at credit-card companies may not question donations to charities, according the Symantec blog. Santoyo said the schemers usually donate less than $10.

American Red Cross spokeswoman Carrie Martin said, "This happens all the time. We have people at the Red Cross who deal with this type of activity."

Last month alone, the Red Cross refunded 700 fraudulent credit-card transactions, Martin said.