There it was: a text and an email message from my credit card company. Someone was trying to use my card in a different state!
I had traveled there the week before and stopped at one of those travel plazas to fill up my car. Maybe that’s where it happened.
How on earth somebody got ahold of my card information from my wallet and worse—was able to use it—is beyond me.
Something must have set off this alert because the credit card was not present.
“Card not present” fraud—the type of transaction you’d do online—is now 81 percent more likely than frauds perpetrated in person, according to Javelin.
In 2017, nearly a third (30 percent) of U.S. consumers were notified of a breach, up from 12 percent in 2016.
In my case, fortunately, this was the only charge; and because of this fraud alert, I was able to prevent future damage.
What a blessing. What a great service! But, of course, it’s also a pain-in-the-you-know-what, because it meant I had to cancel my card and wait for a new one.
Now the hard part comes: Which organizations was I donating regularly to? I don’t remember! I give to so many organizations and have several credit cards to do so.
Fortunately, I’ll be able to go online to my account and look back to the last month. But you know what, I have a better idea… I’m going to wait and see.
I’m going to wait and see what the organizations will do to get my updated information to continue my monthly gifts. How many will call? How many will email? How many will send me a letter? How long will it take?
So, as a fundraiser with monthly donor program, now’s the time to evaluate your processes. Make sure you have good in-house alerts, so you know immediately if a monthly donor’s payment doesn’t come in. If you’re not yet doing this already, make sure you track the success rate of your mail/email/phone monthly donor retention efforts and see what you can do to improve on it.
