Scams Chat!

[Guest Brivtech]

I'm starting this topic to make people aware of some of the scams out there. While 99% of the time, transactions are genuine, there is the small element that sets out to take advantage of you - On occasion, this can hurt hard! Starting with this one...

Pay more and refund scam!

BEWARE OF SCAMS

We would like to make you aware of a scam where people offer you a much higher price for your item than you're asking for.

You will be asked to deal with the buyer's shipping agent, partner or friend who lives in this country and who is possibly owed money by the buyer. They will tell you that they will send you a cheque for at least double the amount, and then request the excess refunded to them. The cheque is a forgery and we recommend that you stop all communications with these people. Dont give them any bank, credit card or personal details.

We have put a number of measures in place that will stop these scams, but use common sense, if you receive a suspicious offer, do not communicate back.

I've come across this one once before, about 10 years ago, with a customer from Ghana. He sent a banker's draft over which was approx £900, when the order came to around £600. We didn't see any harm in doing this, and he paid full price when the goods were normally discounted.

After clearing the cheque, and subsequently dispatching his order, and sending his cousin in the UK the refund (by OUR cheque), we received a letter from Barclays (about 2 months later!!!). They informed us that the banker's draft was fraudulent, and that it had been altered - probably by typewriter ink lift-off tape (Electric typewriters used to allow a delete function). This meant that we lost the money in the cheque we sent out, and also the value of the goods and carriage to Ghana! In total, it cost us about £700, plus the bank's fee of about £17 at the time.

Sometimes there's no way to cover for these things. Decline any transactions that appear suspiscious. If we had known about such things, we could have sent a telex or fax to the bank (Now email I guess these days), asking if the cheque and the details thereon were valid. Never accept cheques that have conditions or offers applied!

[Guest Coder68]

This one relates to stolen credit card numbers and personal info.

A thief will make a purchase at XYZ.com (your store) with "Mr. Smiths" stolen credit card number and personal information. The thief will put in all of Mr. Smiths actual data. Address, phone number etc so the order will go through. Once the order goes through, and is being shipped by lets say FedEx, our thief will call the real Mr. Smith and say he is from XYZ.com and that due to a computer glitch they shipped "Mr. Jones" stuff to his (Mr. Smiths) house. They will tell the real Mr. Smith that they will be sending a call tag (From a different shipper then the one used to ship from your store). The thief makes arrangements with the real Mr. Smith for a time for UPS to pick it up and that XYZ.com will be sending him a gift certificate or a coupon for his troubles. Mr. Smith being a kind hearted person lets UPS pick up the package, only to find out later when he gets his credit card statement that he has been charged by XYZ.com for the order. All calls to XYZ.com refer him to the fact it was delivered to HIS address and signed for by HIM. Mr. Smith also finds out that the coupon code or gift certificate is a fake.

The package has been then reshipped to the thief or an accomplice, and since a second shipper was used it is harder to track down. The credit card company will eventually do a charge back to your store. You are then out the merchandise and the money.

This scam has reemerged. I read about it in an Internet Retailer magazine recently.

The problem is, that you cannot spot it until it is to late, or if a wise customer calls you direct to check it out. Your only real defense is to educate your shoppers to call you direct when anything out of the normal happens.

Hope nobody gets hit by this!

Coder68

[Guest valencia]

I had a scam that someone tried to run past me one at my CC electronics site a few days ago.

A customer from Australia paid for 5 phones totalling over $1500 and 2Checkout approved the order. The suspicious order was to be shipped to a different person in the USA than the credit card holder in Australia and the order was placed from a IP address in Monaco.

I emailed fraud@ 2checkout after which they declined the order as fraudulent. The card was indeed stolen. I have since realized that the scam is to ship to a different address after using a stolen card, but the one way to identify the scam was to check the IP address. It is sometimes a good tip off.

After contacting the buyer by mail, he gave a story about moving from Australia and a problem with the card, but in good faith would send me a cheque for the total plus extra for my troubles. But I would need to send back some cash as he was getting a cheque from a client and after I took out mine I should send him the difference.

This scam was an elaborate fraudulent scheme using one or more elements of the popular scams out there. On my

CubeCart stores only please

I just posted some anti-scam tips for webmasters. We all need to be vigilant and watch each others backs. Imagine if I had shipped the $1500 goods and with 2checkout :blink:

[Guest chantesse]

....This one relates to stolen credit card numbers and personal info.....our thief will call the real Mr. Smith and say he is from XYZ.com and that due to a computer glitch they shipped "Mr. Jones" stuff to his (Mr. Smiths) house....

In the case of this scam, is not the Credit Card co going to have to bear the loss? If anyone can point to the details of this scam, maybe there is discussion about this point.