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Societies’ websites fraud alert! |
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Societies’ websites fraud alert! |
The Council for British Archaeology has been alerted to news that an organised gang is working its way through the Charity Commission website of charities, identifying those which have websites. It then accesses those websites to identify charities which encourage people to apply to become members on-line or to make donations by direct debit. These charities give their bank account numbers and sort codes on their website so that new members can pay by direct debit. However, this important information can then be used by the fraudsters to take direct debit payments from the charity bank account in order to buy insurances online — for which they automatically receive a valid certificate of cover online. These can then be used for purposes of identity theft. Local history societies should not place any information about their bank accounts online and should talk to their bank about how best to set up direct debit payment systems for new and existing members.
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27 April 2007
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