| International Orders and Credit Card Fraud |
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Written by Ron Coble February 7, 2007 Beating the Fraudsters
I debated all week about adding my 2 cents to the subject of International sales because this post could easily evolve into being being a book sized post. But a large order from South Africa prompted me to jump in with some comments and suggestions. |
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| The practice of imprinting cards has been happening for awhile now. The thieves somehow secure long series of "correct" CC numbers and then use these as the keys to make fakes from blanks. The whole thing is very professional and industrial, somehow I think the mob is involved *smile*. Thanks for the great tips here, by the way. I use whois.sc and lots of other tools depending on the country of origin. You can usually smell the fraudulent orders right away, but every now and then a legit one comes over that looks phishy. |
Tom Aman
said:
| Comment about your post first - that was a great one. Just wanted to mention that whois.sc has changed their name (and address) to - http://www.domaintools.com. Tom Aman |
Robert
said:
| Hi Ron Thank you for a great article in LED Digest, I sure picked up some great tips on how to avoid getting burnt. Thanks again Robert |
Dave
said:
| I wish staff where I work read this about a month ago. After we accepted the transaction of $8000 (for payment of the goods and freight), we were instructed to pay $3000 for freight costs to Africa. This was done, to a bank account that is now empty and closed.. Later on, we are advised that the $8000 has to be given back to the bank because of fraudent card. Bye bye $3000... lucky we caught the goods before they left, or it would have been worse. 2 days ago, we received an email from a new customer, with a new order... Wonder if there is a way to get back at them. |
tom
said:
| We are a small manufacturer of exercise equipment here in the midwest. We were contacted by a "rev mark johnson" who wanted to buy equipment for his church in san francisco. He placed 3 orders for over $45,000. I googled his church and it is right there in san francisco. He then put me in contact with his shipping company "western shipping" which is a real int'l shipping company (but not in ghana as i found out later). They gave me quotes on the shipping and ask tht I PREPAY the shipping and send them monies via Western Union. The fraud was they used legitimate business's to order products using stolen credit card numbers AND getting cash out of the shipping charges. Now I am very worried that they are using this money to finance terror operations. Thankfully I never shipped the product even though I have to pay the credit card companies back. And that has been very damaging to our business. If anyone has any suggestions about how I can get these guys, i would be glad to know. |
laura scott
said:
| hi. our small, fragile company was just scammed out of $4K in goods..shipment 1 & 2 have been charged back by the person who's card was stolen, then the 3rd shipment we sent and the credit card was declined. fed ex destroyed the goods in singapore. how can we ever go after how did this with just their email and shipping addresses? we are out product, money, and hope at this point. what they did to us is happening everywhere and it's the difference of keeping the company running and closing the doors. it seemed totally legitimate. please help. thank you. laura |
Dan
said:
| People be warned, luckily I have worked in eCommerce previously for a number of years and these scam artists are very hard workers! Reverend Mark Johnson (this time based in Johannesburg, South Africa) wanted to order 90,000 flyers from us for his orphanage; if it weren't for the the overboard 'holyness' of the story and the fact that the shipping company (which does not exist) want all (extortionate) fees upfront I may have gone further!! Do not be tempted to fulfil orders that raise alarms; they will almost certainly result in credit card chargebacks, possibly the loss of any shipping costs and any stock/product you supply. I'm a small business and cannot afford it. If you're in the UK then can I suggest forwarding any correspondence/evidence to the Office of Fair Trading. In reality there's not a lot that can be done but you never know. Good Luck |
Erica
said:
| We are a small company in the Midwest, and we were just taken by an International Credit Card scam. We too had a gentleman call to order water heaters to be sent to Ghana, Africa. We did order the products, and he did pay with credit cards. Seven different cards, with the same name & address. He wanted us to only charge the card $900 at a time. We saw red flags all over but were too trusting to actually realize what was REALLY happening to us. We did not send the product, however we did send the "prepay" freight charges via Western Union. So he ordered $50K worth of water heaters for his AKA 5 star hotels and got $4800 for freight charges from us, he is expecting us to send him more, however we are not sending him anything, and he doesn't know it yet. We have him hook line and sinker back just like he did us and many others!!!! Be aware and ask TOO MANY questions! It could really save you! IF you think something is too good to be true or fishy it probably really is! Always get a return phone number and verify everything! He also gave us the shipping company name, which I cannot find anywhere, so if anyone says to only use this shipping company check on the company to make sure its legit before sending anything!!!!!!! Sincerely Taken! Erica |
Anne
said:
| This is just happening to us. We got an order for about $3400 worth of products. The guy did not want to go through PayPayl but did want to use a Credit Card (Red Flag!!) in my mind. He then wanted us to ship the products directly to South Africa, using a Cargo company out of Ghana. We were to pay for the shipping charges and add them to the charge of the products. Make a long story short, we are running away from this deal as fast as we possible can. I wish there was a way to get these guys. The guy orchestrating this has called me a few times but only from an "unknown" number and I am sure that his email address is bogus... |
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