The dreaded Chargeback - advice needed

[StokieShinobi]

Hi all, I am new to the forums - long time reader... 1st time poster

I was hoping for a little advice..

I have been trading on eBay for years and now have an online shop with sagepay. I recently had 2 or 3 orders from the same person all for around £350 each. Now 2 weeks on I have been hit with chargebacks on every one. This has left me somewhat crippled this month. It seems this customer used a different international credit card (USA / Canadian) for each order. These credit cards have been used without the genuine cardholders consent. How this individual has all of these carrd number I do not know.

I have spoken to my merchant bank and they say I will not be getting the money back, I am resigned to this now. I have changed my sagepay settings to only dispatch to cardholders address and have enabled 3D secure. It has been an expensive lesson for me and my business

Nevertheless what I need advise on is what do I do now? This individual has over £700 worth of our stock, I have signed for receipt that he has them, yet he has not paid for them. Do I contact the police? Is there a particular organisation I contact regarding this? I was planning on sending the fraud customer letters requesting payment or the goods back (I am pretty sure these will get nowhere).

I am just wondering what else I do from here to ensure he gets caught and does not continue doing this to small UK businesses

Thanks all
Andy

 

[sysops]

I have been trading on eBay for years and now have an online shop with sagepay. I recently had 2 or 3 orders from the same person all for around £350 each. Now 2 weeks on I have been hit with chargebacks on every one. This has left me somewhat crippled this month. It seems this customer used a different international credit card (USA / Canadian) for each order. These credit cards have been used without the genuine cardholders consent. How this individual has all of these carrd number I do not know.

I have spoken to my merchant bank and they say I will not be getting the money back, I am resigned to this now. I have changed my sagepay settings to only dispatch to cardholders address and have enabled 3D secure. It has been an expensive lesson for me and my business

Nevertheless what I need advise on is what do I do now? This individual has over £700 worth of our stock, I have signed for receipt that he has them, yet he has not paid for them. Do I contact the police? Is there a particular organisation I contact regarding this? I was planning on sending the fraud customer letters requesting payment or the goods back (I am pretty sure these will get nowhere).

There is nothing you can do apart from learn from it and move on. The police will give you an incident number, but that's about it. No further action will be taken.

Certainly only dispatch to card address for an order of that value (at least for the first order), and 3DS is not a bad idea.

 

[Sustainable Marine]

Sadly you have been the victim of a crime and there is no one that will take action.

It is so important to check that card details match the customer's info. Sorry not to be more constructive.

 

[Naughty Vend]

I have spoken to my merchant bank and they say I will not be getting the money back, I am resigned to this now. I have changed my sagepay settings to only dispatch to cardholders address and have enabled 3D secure. It has been an expensive lesson for me and my business

...and that's all she wrote, sorry...

On any CNP (a phrase you shall be familiar with by now) which exceeds a certain value and for nearly all non-UK shipments, check it manually in person or even if it means employing someone to "tick a box" saying ok to send and if unsure ask for further verification such as a scan of both sides of the card to be emailed to you and only ship to the registered address. If they are not happy to pay then tough, compare the lost profit to the lost physical money which is worth multiples of your profit margin...

If unsure, look up the address online and see who lives there (same person?) then call them, check for spelling mistooks and grammur but ultimately remember the acronym that pays dividends; D - T - A - F which stands for Don't Trust Any Fecker. Also remember that even AVS and 3D have loopholes but this is a public forum, nothing is safe 100% so if it doesn't feel right just say sorry buy elsewhere.

 

[deniser]

If it makes you feel better, report it to the police. If the person involved is known to them, they may take the matter further. I once got as far as them searching the premises because the fraudster had previous convictions so they thought it was worthwhile. It didn't go any further as the goods had gone elsewhere but I did get some satisfaction from it!

 

[Sustainable Marine]

Where is the buyer/fraudster's address?

 

[StokieShinobi]

I may report it, as you say it cannot do any more damage than whats already been done!

The address is in Slough [32 Gosling Road] - avoid like the plague!!

 

[LianneF]

If you use sagepay then you are told the ip of the person and what country the card is issued too. You also get the 3rd Man score come through which if they placed multiple high orders with you then this should have been medium or high risk at least and if the address, email or card has been reported before then this will also flag up. Any high orders I would be very cautious about, and look at what they are actually buying, does it make sense? Having 3d secure enabled should help too but mostly its down to gut instinct on whether the order looks dodgy or not. fingers crossed you don't get stung again.

 

[CraigieDD]

As far as I'm aware the police will tell you that this is a civil matter.. God knows why.

And that only if the amount is over 10k will it go to the fraud squad.