Question About Order

[Guest prissanna]

I have a customer from out of the country (we only ship US) who is ordering. They want their order shipped to their cousin in FL. To start with she said the order would not go through and what could she do. I accept credit cards through Paypal. Now she is saying that PP will accept her payment but she has to get her security code from her bank. This kind of sets up red flags for me. How do I know this is legit? It's $300 worth and I so want to sell it, but I don't want any problems either. If PP approves the order, is it OK to go ahead and sell it to her? Any helpful info would be appreciated.

[Guest]

My rule of thumb is if an order is over $100 and smells fishy, take precautions, so it's good you are.

First off, I'd try to verify the customers international address - there are a lot of country phone directories online - do a search for their country "phone book". This isn't an exact science, but gives you 1 point of assurance.

Second, I would ask for the contact information for the cousin in Florida and call them to verify shipment to them is okay.

Third, I would tell them for such a large order shipping to a 3rd party, you require Western Union or bank wire transfer as payment instead of paypal. As far as I know, Paypal does not need any kind of "security code" for someone to transfer funds. Of course, this could be country dependent, but I have been shipping internationally for 7 years and never heard of anything like this.

I have a separate business bank account that I accept wire transfers into (and always tell them it is a 1-way account only), and I only keep $5 in that account. When I get a payment into it, I transfer the funds immediately to my normal business account in the same bank. Worse case if they try to hack my account, they could only get $5 (though according to the bank, this isn't possible - I'm extra cautious when it comes to money).

If they refuse any of the above, its better to walk away from it then risk it imo.

[Guest prissanna]

Thanks Lori!

I haven't heard anything else from her so I'm thinking scam for sure.

[Guest]

Yeah, 10 to 1 if you never hear from her again after you challenge them, they were probably trying to pull a fast one.

Another word of caution while we are on the subject: beware of counterfeit money orders. I've experienced 2 in my time - one for over $12k to a company I used to work for (with the crook in near daily contact from the UK even) and one for $450 to me. The one to me was actually written on a bank that we have a branch of here, so i took it to them and they confirmed it was bogus.