ThumbPeople Experiences New Form of Theft

Online, February 1, 2011 (Newswire.com) - The Minnesota company, ThumbPeople, Inc. has experienced a version of fraud with a new twist.

As a supplier of positive children's books and music, ThumbPeople offers an affiliate program which employs primarily stay-at-home moms. This affiliate program allows individuals to earn money by sending emails and highlighting family friendly products.

Unfortunately, this wholesome program was raided this week as a dishonest individual fraudulently signed up to be an online ThumbPeople affiliate. This individual used credit card information previously stolen from external sources to purchase sets of Thumbuddy children's books and music with the intent to receive the commission on these sales.

ThumbPeople founder, Mark Arens, said, "This individual wrongfully invested a great deal of time and effort with no reward. We very quickly discovered that our affiliate program had been used illegally and were able to cancel all payment of commission."

Unfortunately, ThumbPeople still suffered a significant loss as the products purchased with the credit card information illegally obtained from outside resources were automatically shipped leaving ThumbPeople responsible for the loss of inventory plus shipping expenses.

Jason Daily, Operations Manager at ThumbPeople, stated that the coding within the company's affiliate program has been adjusted to prevent this fraudulent activity from happening again. Mr. Dailey was able to track this illegal activity to a computer IP address originating in Vietnam. He emailed the individual alerting them that ThumbPeople was aware of their illegal activity and would not be issuing payment to their falsified affiliate account.

An advocate for close family relationships, ThumbPeople, produces nurturing children's literature, music and preschool curriculum. They've been recognized for their efforts in positive youth development in building self confidence in children.