Fergie's Tech Blog

Credit Card Thieves Flood Wikimedia With Pennies

Brian Krebs writes on Security Fix:

The Wikimedia Foundation, the parent organization of the free online encyclopedia Wikipedia and other open-source projects, recently increased the minimum amount it will accept in donations after scammers apparently began testing the validity of stolen credit cards by sending a series of 1-cent "donations" to the group.

On Nov. 8, Wikimedia saw hundreds of penny donations come in over a very short period of time. In many cases, Wikimedia donors leave messages of support or praise for the organization along with their gift, but all of the fake donations were anonymous and contained no greeting, suggesting their submission may have somehow been automated.

posted by Fergie @ 11/20/2007 12:16:00 PM