Donation overpayment scheme hits Florida

The Internet Crime Complaint Center has issued an alert for a new scheme making its way around Florida and the rest of the U.S.

The IC3 said it has received numerous complaints from business, charitable organizations, schools, universities, health related organizations and nonprofits reporting an online donation scheme.

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According to investigators, the new scheme works as follows:

  • The suspect makes an online donation to the organization.
  • The suspect contacts the organization stating they accidentally entered an extra digit when typing the donation amount online, whereas they wanted to make a $500 donation, they typed $5,000 by mistake.
  • The suspect requests a refund of the over-donation to be placed on their credit card, however, they supply the organization with a different credit card number.
  • The organization refunds the over-donation to the new card number.
  • The card used to make the initial donation is stolen. The card the organization refunds the over-donation is a card held by the suspect. The suspect will remove the funds from the credit card and move on to their next victim. The cards used by the suspect for the refunds are debit cards, which cannot be tracked back to an actual person.

If anyone contacts you or your organization requesting a refund for any purpose, take the extra step of ensuring the refund is issued to the original card that made the donation or purchase, investigators said.

If you suspect any illegal activity during a transaction, online or in person, contact police.