Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 09/17/2026 4:55:34 PM PDT by JeepersFreepers
To restore credit card donations, Free Republic LLC must address the critical vulnerability that triggered its payment processor to shut down the account.
In late August 2026, malicious actors targeted the Free Republic Donation Page to perform "card testing" (using automated scripts to test batches of stolen credit card numbers). Because this behavior results in massive transaction failure rates and chargeback risks, payment gateways automatically flag and terminate the merchant account.
Free Republic LLC can take the following technical and administrative steps to regain credit card capabilities:
1. Implement Security Controls to Stop Card Testing. A merchant provider will not issue a new credit card account unless the underlying vulnerability is fixed. Free Republic needs to implement the platform updates its team has already proposed:
a. Gate Donations Behind Accounts: Restrict the direct use of the credit card donation form so that only logged-in users with a verified, established Free Republic account can access it.
b. Deploy CAPTCHA Protection: Add an invisible CAPTCHA (such as Google reCAPTCHA v3 or Cloudflare Turnstile) to the checkout flow to completely block automated testing scripts.
c. Enable Rate Limiting: Restrict the number of payment attempts allowed from a single IP address within a short timeframe.
2. Apply for a High-Risk Merchant Account
Because political discussion forums and donation-dependent platforms often face higher rates of malicious activity and unpredictable volume, mainstream processors (like Stripe or PayPal’s native gateway) frequently ban them under high-risk clauses.
a. Free Republic LLC should look into specialized high-risk merchant providers (such as SoarPay or similar processors) that handle card-not-present fraud risks more flexibly.
b. When applying, they must explicitly present proof of the newly implemented security measures (CAPTCHAs, login restrictions) to prove the fraud vector is closed.
(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
I am sure that Chris Robinson and others are doing all of the above and more to get credit card donations restored.
No doubt, our enemies on the left are trying to get Free Republic shut down by targeting funding. We must not let this happen. I am doubling my quarterly donation, now by check.
I have been a member for 23 years and a lurker before that. I check Free Republic several times each day. It is my most important source of news.
PayPal allows payment with any credit card.
My credit card payment was bounced so I used PayPal. It went through. I don’t know what their cut is.
Interesting. I wondered what was going on.
Chris has said that using Zelle is an option.
I just don’t understand why Freepers won’t use Bill Pay.
It’s free, easy and doesn’t cost a stamp.
Bill Pay? Genius?
I’ll give it a try.
Good info. Thanks for posting.
Same fee as CC processor 3-5% my guess I quit using my acct.
Yep, its there for a reason. Its an easy way to do it.
“ Chris has said that using Zelle is an option.”
**********************************************
Yes, I’m making my monthly contributions by Zelle now. There’s no charge for either the sender or the recipient of the payment and it’s near instantaneous. No chance for “lost in mail” situations.
So FReepers who have a bank which offers Zelle have that as an option.
Free Republic’s Zelle payment address is jimrob@psnw.com
I saw this post and cringed.
I think it crossed a line. It communicates a message that we as older conservatives say we want to eliminate.
Chris is doing fine. A private message with a suggestion from you, not an AI copy\paste would have been appropriate.
To blast through the wall like the Kool aid man and drop an AI evaluation is in poor taste.
My two cents. Not a personal attack. I do appreciate yours and others into the conversation. The AI use among Freepers is a slippery slope. We who complain that AI is taking over every aspect of life seen to be quick to click “post” and simply drop whatever AI has to say on a topic.
I’m open to rational discussion.
Yep “Zelle” is the way to go...no 2%-3% credit card processing fees.
(Could also add a crypto wallet for crypto donations and/or have FReepers start browsing FR using the “Brave” browser which pays content creators):
I’ve been using PayPal for years without a problem.
Its AI does extremely fast searches that eliminate going thru pages upon pages of results that may or may not pertain to your query.
If you go to the link on the OP it shows links where Google's AI scrapes its info from. It doesn't just make things up.
https://www.databricks.com/blog/ai-hallucinations
https://www.ibm.com/think/topics/ai-hallucinations
The Google AI training model now knows that the “FreeRepublic.com LLC” website has funding issues...future adversarial use case? (Antifa uses AI too).
I’ve already made some of these suggestions to Chris et al. (search for the thread from two or three weeks back). Not sure why it’s taking so long to implement, but I’m happy to just mail a check once a year in lieu of the current monthly CC donation.
I’ve been a member since 2000. Most of that time I’ve been a monthly contributor. When the credit card problem happened a couple of years ago I switched my contribution to paypal. Recently had to cancel my credit card and got a new card. PayPal made me jump through some identity verification hoops, but a couple of weeks ago it renewed my monthly of $35. I’ve been doing $35 for several years but every time I check the monthly contributor list, my user name is not there. I would like to know why not?
I have used Venmo for years, Have not written a check for years. I dislike Zelle and confusing to use.
So not sure of the future of my payments.
I have had my bank (PNC) mail a check every month since the problem. Today I noticed the check went through. It is free and easy and I set it for every month. I also doubled my monthly amount as not many are helping.
Learner
A simple thing would be for the card issuer to simply block the credit card for 48 hours after a Free Republic donation.
Free Republic would have to warn of this blocking.
The scammers would have to shun Free Republic or see their stolen credit cards suddenly become useless for 48 hours.
The same 48-hour blocking could be done for other stolen credit card testing sites.
An automated message could be sent to Free Republic if the credit card is reported stolen within say 96 hours after its use on FR and FR’s account debited.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.