Security

Fraud Alert

World Vision values the support of its donors, who give generously to help those in need. Unfortunately, criminals sometimes prey on that generosity. Recently, criminals overseas created a website to look like the World Vision site, in order to collect private information from those wanting to help children and families in need. Other charities — as well as banks, corporations and even grandparents — have been targeted by similar schemes.

We want to protect our donors from such scams. Before you provide any information online, be sure you know it’s World Vision. Here are some tips you can use to protect yourself:

• The website for World Vision in the United States is www.worldvision.org. We have taken every step to ensure the private information of our donors.
• If you have any doubt, type www.worldvision.org directly into your browser.
• If you have any questions, please call us at 888-511-6502, or email at [email protected].

World Vision Security Policy

All response forms requesting confidential information (such as credit card numbers) on World Vision’s website utilize the Internet security protocol known as “Secure Sockets Layer” or “SSL.” This is a certification and encryption technology designed to make using your credit card as safe as possible on the Internet.

Independent agencies report that, statistically speaking, using a credit card on the Internet through SSL is far safer than submitting your credit card to a clerk in the grocery store, or over an open telephone line. In fact, they report that there are no recorded instances of someone “breaking” SSL encryption and using credit card information stored therein for fraudulent purposes.

The SSL technology depends on secure Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) which are certified by a certifying authority such as Thawte. Secure URLs always begin with “https://” rather than “http://” and if you are using one from a browser that recognizes SSL, you will generally also receive a preceding message and/or see a symbol, such as a lock, that signifies that you are on a secure page. Any information you enter on such a page is encrypted at your browser, sent over the public Internet in encrypted form, then de-encrypted at our servers.

If your browser doesn’t support SSL technology, you will receive an error message when trying to access our SSL page.

Once we receive your credit card information, it is accessible only to a small number of trusted World Vision staff who have been specially trained in processing this information.