TVLC | James Tolkan | Chargeback Scam hurting Nonprofits
Weekly Report 🎖️
Greetings, Team
Congratulations to Post 13 American Legion, for Thurs evening’s FIRST EVER “Candidates Meet and Greet” for the Veteran community. The nonpartisan event drew a crowd near ninety in all, including an unexpected 24 local candidates (from both parties as well as “no party” candidates) for a variety of public offices. After our weekly legal clinic, Veterans from several VSO’s and family and visitors from the public came streaming in to meet candidates both familiar and brand new on the Tallahassee electoral scene. And people listened to brief intros from each candidate and then mingled among the 24 tabled locations-- for HOURS. There were no partisan jabs or even tension, as some candidates respectfully signed each other’s petitions to qualify for their own opponents’ candidacy (even across political parties ha). The races included 2d Circuit Judges, Congressional candidates for District 2, Fl House districts 8 & 9, Leon County Commission districts 3 & 5, and Tallahassee Mayor and city commission seats 3 & 5. Local tv crews (as well as campus media programs) reported the evening’s event.
This Monday, April 6, 3 pm is your Next opportunity to observe a session of the Leon County Veterans Treatment Court (Leon County Courthouse, Courtroom 2E), and maybe you will consider becoming a Veteran Mentor for the Vets working their way through the program and recovery.
The monthly Commanders Coalition meeting Wednesday shared a long list of upcoming events, fund-raisers and campaigns among the near record number of participants from area VSOs and support organizations and agencies (from several counties and both states!). Dennis Hall and John Folsom co-chaired. At least 4 local officials’ offices were represented for constituency response and hearing about our various events for the spring and summer.
Our Team of 23 Volunteers (including 7 attys and two FSU Law students) worked with 17 Veterans and family members Thursday, 4/2/26, for our TVLC Legal Clinic at American Legion Sauls Bridges Post 13. Plus we assisted at least others by phone and email, in and out of state.
Kudo’s again to TVLC’s truck and trailer team this week (Khalid Shafi, Charles Robinson, and Gregory Howard) for a trip to Quincy Wed (with Eddie McMillian, Sam Adams, Leonard Bell, David Martinez and Chris Bodiford waiting at this end); the crew is now prepping to distribute umpteen boxes of donated Girl Scout Cookies next Wednesday to several locations around Tallahassee.
Redux:
No gubernatorial action yet on the bills passed by the 2026 Legislature: NEW VETERANS BENEFITS: Dental Benefits were expanded (HB 253), Veteran Housing subsidies were added when moving is delayed (SB 1602), among several Veterans bills on their way to the Governor. Since the appropriations process hasn’t been worked out as scheduled, the “Regular session” did not finalize the 26-27 Florida budget on time. Before session adjourned, though, more than a dozen Veteran-related bills were passed in one or both chambers in the usual Bipartisan co-operation, including the reform bill by Gen. Patt Maney strengthening the 34 Veteran Courts around the state! (HB 199). Also See www.flsenate.gov for info on the now at least 64 Veteran-related bills which were pending this year. Let us know if you want our “tracker” listing of the ongoing status of the bills, which we updated daily during the session. Some legislation passed may present potential harm to some Veterans if signed by the Governor; other bills fortunately died on the floor of one or the other chamber as the session ended last week.
One special need: The number of issues with the VA is outstripping our local resources to keep up with the complications, new claims, and VA delays; so, any other attorneys wanting to join our “VA Law team,” we need you, and have training and national legal resources available to bring you into the fray. Were you a JAG? Have you helped with Social Security or other federal agencies that you already have a headstart on picking up VA law?
Donations to TVLC from various events in recent months and ongoing supporters are helping Veterans successfully reinstate their Driver’s Licenses, sometimes after years of being unable to lawfully drive. The donations also provide gas for the weekly Food Delivery trips to Quincy for the various Veteran housing facilities around the region.
What else?
Thank you, Dan Hendrickson, for the Tallahassee Veterans Legal Collaborative www.Tallahasseeveteranslegal.com
PO Box 11091, Tallahassee, Fl 32302, 850/ 570-1967
US Navy Veteran & Actor James Tolkan dies at 94
https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-movies/actor-james-tolkan-has-seen-it-all/
The donation chargeback scam ruining good causes
A few nonprofits recently noticed something strange on their donation pages.
Dozens of $1 donations are appearing overnight.
Then more the next day. And the next.
But a few weeks later, the chargebacks started arriving.
According to NonProfit PRO, Each disputed donation usually carries a $20–$50 bank fee. What looked like harmless micro-donations can quickly turn into thousands of dollars in losses.
What’s happening?
In many cases, this pattern comes from card-testing attacks.
Quick and accessible giving paths = easy targets.
That’s donation forms.
Warning signs
Organizations that have dealt with this say the activity usually looks like:
✅ Dozens of tiny donations in a short time window
✅ Transactions time > filling out a form
✅ Multiple cards from similar IP ranges
✅ Spike in failed authorization attempts
✅ Low-value suspicious payments alongside failed transactions
✅ Nonsensical or random names and email addresses in submissions
✅ Sudden increases in payment or server log volume
✅ Chargebacks appearing days or weeks later
✅ Because the individual donations are small, the pattern can go unnoticed until the disputes begin.
What nonprofits can do to reduce the risk
Teams that have experienced this have added a few practical safeguards:
1. Honeypot fields that bots fill automatically but people never see.
2. Form timing limits that block submissions completed in seconds.
3. reCAPTCHA thresholds to filter automated traffic.
4. Monitoring transactions so suspicious donations can be voided before settlement.
~Special thanks to RallyUp for this information