Security Center

SECURITY OVERVIEW

Wish Upon A Hero is unique website that allows people to help others though direct communication and interaction. A system like this is the perfect solution for honest people to helping others quickly and efficiently. Unfortunately, there are dishonest people who will try to use the system to take advantage of people. We refer to these individuals as Villains. Every site has to deal with Villains in their own way: ebay, paypal, craigslist, all the credit card companies, and generally any website with a transaction function. As a way to protect our members from Villains we have programmed many security features and continually implement many new processes. The following information will help you understand the functionality of the Wish Upon A Hero website as well as provide confidence in a members decisions to wish and grant.

SECURITY FEATURES

1. IP CHECK: As a way to cut down on people creating multiple accounts, we programmed the site to run checks on the number accounts per IP address. You are only allowed one account. We realize that people sometimes have a need to share computers, therefore we created the IP rules below. ONLY one account can be used for wishing. This programming was created as a security feature to stop people from creating multiple wishing accounts. It was created to protect the heroes. Please read the IP rules below carefully.

If you have only 1 account, then you can make and grant a wish.
If you have 2 accounts, then you can ONLY make a wish on the original account. You can grant a wish on both.
If you have 3 or more accounts, the you can't make or grant a wish and ALL your accounts may be closed.

If you have a Shared IP (AOL, Corporate Network) your account will be marked as a "Shared IP". Shared IP's do not register with our system, therefore we cannot guarantee them as an individual user. Heroes will be responsible for their own actions when granting Shared IP wishes. If we catch you creating multiple accounts on a shared IP address or switching your IP address to create multiple accounts, then ALL your accounts will be closed.

2. MEMBER CERTIFICATION: Many of the Wishers would be embarrassed to post up their real information and many of the Heroes would like to remain truly anonymous. We hold privacy in the highest regards but that creates a slight problem when trying to determine a person's true identity. So we created the Certification Information form located under My Account under Edit My Profile. To become a certified member, the personal information needs to be completed and then it gets verified by the Wish Security Team. We run identity checks to confirm the information is valid. Once the account has been approved a Red Star will appear next to the member's name. This indicates to all other members that this member has supplied Wish Security with all their personal information and their identity has been proven legitimate. Many times members will need to supply the security team with utility, phone or drivers license to be approved as a certified member. Not having a certified account does not indicate that a member is lying about their identity. It is only an indication that we do not have information of their full identity.

3. WISH VERIFICATION: The Administration will verify a Wish to help the Heroes make a more informed grant. To have a wish verified the member needs to first be Certified, then the member needs to prove their wish is valid and true by providing enough physical documentation for the Wish Administration to approve the wish with confidence. A verified wish is usually marked by one of the admin and will have a message that reads: ***THIS WISH HAS BEEN VERIFIED****

4. QUESTION MARK: As a way of tracking a member with questionable activity or unanswered information, the Wish Administrators are able to add an Orange Question Mark next to the members account name. In most cases, we recommend that members suspend activity with the Question Mark account.

5. ADMINISTRATION COMMENTS: As a way of informing the members with information about a posted wish or the Wisher, many times the admin will leave details in the comment section. This allows everyone to view the information publicly.

6. MEMBER PROFILE STATS: A great way to get a good sense of the member whose wish you may grant is by checking out their member profile stats. Click on the users name and you will be able to see: how long they have been a member, their other current wishes, wishes that they have had granted and wishes that they have been a hero on.

7. THE WISH SYSTEM: The Wish System is created so members can communicate without revealing personal information. If someone wants to grant your wish and does not use the Wish System by clicking GRANT THIS WISH, that is usually an indication that they are trying to scam you. Many times scammers need to conceal their online identity and try to work around the Wish System by asking for your direct email or your instant messenger identity. Never give out any information directly to anyone. If you are unsure of a member's intentions ask wish administration to verify the member in question.

8. DONATE TO THE FOUNDATION: Helping people directly may be too uncomfortable for some members. They may want to help but don't want the stress of not being sure if a wish is "truthful" or if the member is actually needy. For those people we recommend donating to the Wish Upon A Hero Foundation, Inc. which is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization. All wishes are thoroughly analyzed and discussed by the Foundations Board of Directors before being granted.

9. WISH SECURITY TEAM: The entire site is monitored by the Wish Security Team from behind the scenes. They have the ability to ban members, block IP addresses or delete accounts. The Wish Security Team keeps activity records of all the members and can cross reference the information with other member accounts. Scammers are treated as professional criminals and the Wish Security Team works with local law enforcement to ensure that justice will be served. The Wish Security Team has also worked with the FBI on larger cases of internet fraud.

10. TRUE WISHES COME TRUE: Many people think that lying about sob story will get them what they want, it won't. No one is going to blatantly give you $30,000 dollars for Cancer treatment without checking into your personal files, the doctor, and the medical documentation. The worse thing you can do is discredit yourself on Wish Upon A Hero. If you need $30,000 to get studio time for your band....WISH FOR EXACTLY THAT! You have a better chance of having a TRUE wish come true than a fake wish come true. Also, do not lie about a wish of serious nature to gain financial sympathy. Such as: "I need money to buy a video camera to document that my husband beats me." We make it a policy to notify the local Police to investigate all illegal subject matter.