That is the Question. In this case, the answer was — PUBLISH!

Katrina Credit CardEvacuee Latesha Vinnett holds a debit card from the Red Cross in Houston, Texas.
(STAN HONDA/AFP/Getty Images)

Astrodome: Within two minutes of AFP photographer Stanley Honda electronically publishing a photo of Katrina victim Latesha Vinette holding up her Red Cross debit card, Ms. Vinette was paged by the management of Reliant stadium to receive a call from MasterCard … “I don’t know what I was thinking” said AFP photographer Honda, who failed to obscure any of the card’s digits, or expiration date in his photo. Ms. Vinette’s balance reportedly dropped from $2000 to .45 cents in less than three minutes.

The comment above appeared in “The Spoof” web site published as a satire or parody of a Katrina victim having her government issued credit card number stolen. The story “AFP Photo of Katrina Debit Card #: Priceless” was fictitious … but it really did happen.

Shortly after the Red Cross began issuing debit cards to Hurricane Katrina evacuees, MasterCard International vice president Suzanne Lynch told Reuters wire service recently, a newspaper photo of one beneficiary holding a card was published and disseminated on the Internet. Within 8 hours there were fraudulent charges on the card. “Somebody had seen the picture — and unfortunately they hadn’t blocked the number — and so somebody used the card fraudulently,” Lynch explained. (Katrina Debit Card)

Another photographer published a Katrina victim’s credit card, however “someone” had to good sense to block out the number by holding a finger over it.