Obama on Credit

Posted by: Gene M. | Jun 04,2008


It’s been a while since I wrote a candidate diary – and this isn’t actually going to be one.  It’s no secret here that I support Senator Obama and man is it amazing that he made it this far.  It would have been more amazing had Hillary Clinton conceded, or even hinted at it, but anyway…don’t get me started.  This is, after all, a blog about credit cards and debt, so that’s what I’m going to write about today.

There’s news that credit card thieves are using campaign donation portals to test if stolen credit cards have been accepted.  So if you see an Obama for America donation and you’ve never donated, or you’re a McCain supporter, this is pretty easy to spot.  However, if you’re already an Obama supporter, you’ve got to be careful when going over your credit card bill.  

Identity thieves now use charities to verify if a credit card is valid – to see if the credit card has already been cancelled or skimming (making a fake, duplicate card) has worked.  The difference between a donation and a purchase is simple: a credit card purchase will verify address for shipping and billing details.  An online charity sign-up does not have the same requirements, so credit card fraud protection will not catch this type of fraudulent activity.  As the Presidential election is the biggest thing going right now, candidate donation credit card fraud is on the rise.  

The main things you can do are:

1. Sign up for credit card fraud protection
2. Sign up with a credit monitoring service
3. Survey your credit card bill
4. Install spyware protection to catch online thieves

If you do find a fraudulent charge, you should take this up with your credit card company, rather than with the campaign, as the credit card company will be the ones who can erase this charge.  And don’t let this swear you off from donating to a presidential campaign.  

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