Fraud Warning - Suspicious Overseas Orders

[PoshTime]

We just narrowly escaped being taken for £500 on an internet overseas order. I thought I 'd share the details as it might help others spot them.

Here is the approach:

I\'m interested to order from your company.

Before we go any further, please let me ask you these questions:
- Do you ship worldwide to Singapore?

- Do you accept Mastercard, Visa or Amex?

For those I will responsible for the fees.
I think that wouldn\'t be a problem as I am sure that you can ship via
FedEx,DHL or UPS and that you have a merchant account to accept Credit Card payment,but once again, I just want to make sure.

Please respond immediately so that I can start ordering.

I\'m looking forward to hearing from you soon.


We email back stating we have a limit of £500 on overseas transactions and our payment methods.


Then we get this


Robin, I want order this watch details:
1. Seiko Quartz SQ with box c.1999
2. SEIKO ladies 2Y00-5G10 gold tone quartz
3. Tissot Ladies 1967 Rolled gold Tissot box
4. Seiko 6138 Chrono Auto c.1975

Please calculate total order included shipping cost to Singapore. I will give you the credit card details soon after got your next confirmation.


Regards

Michael



I'm starting to get suspicious as the order is conveniently the maximum possible under the £500limit.

I send link to make payment by credit card. Card get's refused once then accepted by Worldpay.

Ever more suspicious now as the card is registered to the US. This guy is good though, and when I ask for him proof of address he emails me photo ID with the correct address on it.

Then he drops the final clue. Please can you send to my office address

My Shipping address details:
Attn : Michael Mick
Aldino Groups
51, Ubi Avenue 1
# 01 – 27 Paya Ubi Industrial Park
SINGAPORE 408933

Googling around this seems to be a shipping company address known for fraud attempts.

The final confirmation comes when we tell him we are not shipping and get no reply . Genuine customers always come back questioning our decision or offering more info.

It seems these fraud attempts always approach the retailer with the shipping and stock questions when the information is readily available on te website. I guess they are sending these email to hundreds of companies to see who will bite.

It's a jungle out there, be careful :eek:

[deniser]

I only ever get a similar email from a genuine customer when they are from a country that isn't in my drop down list and they ask whether I can ship there, usually Romania, and the email is then a lot more personal and specific about what they want to order.

A genuine customer would just place the order online. And wouldn't ask if you had a "Merchant Account" - I don't think that sort of terminology is in the vocabulary of your average customer.

The biggest giveaway of the lot is the one where they say "And don't forget to reply with your web address in the heading!" so they can see which of the millions they have bombarded has actually replied (not a feature of your email!)

[martin001]

First of all. The guy is emailing you, and getting you to do the transaction over a more primative method of card machine, as often it won't be subject to the same scrutiny as a IPSP like SagePay or someone.

Second easy rule is this. If you are not comfortable EVER in taking any payment from someone, because you suspect fraud. DONT TAKE IT. Dont worry if the customer rants, raves, applies pressure, says they will never order again etc etc etc, so what - dont risk it.

Been there - done that.

[martin001]

The biggest giveaway of the lot is the one where they say "And don't forget to reply with your web address in the heading!" so they can see which of the millions they have bombarded has actually replied (not a feature of your email!)


I agree. Big big giveaway.

[gibby]

We have had a few like this but they don't even check the site to see if we have the products they want.


We did have a card issue earlier this week that may help others.

We use Streamline with Sage pay. A customer rang us to make the payment (as Sage Pay was off line).
He gave us the details & they were accepted through the Sage Pay terminal.
On Monday - 2 weeks later Streamline tell us about a charge back.

Lots of calls go on & eventually Streamline tell us that the payment was authorised but the customers name & address were incorrect.

Somehow 1 digit was wrong on the card number but they allowed the payment to go through so a poor lady had £100 taken off her card although all the details were wrong.

When I pulled Streamline about this they told me it happens now & again but we were the ones who would have lost out if we couldn't trace the customer to get the correct card details.

Make you wonder why we pay all these fees.

G