posted on November 12, 2000 09:26:48 PM new
Ok...i listed 2 items, similar items and they were both won by winners in Colombia coincidentally.
Ok now, one colombian bidder contacted me in advance and asked if I would send it to his family in colombia, and I said yes (hesitantly).
OK now that colombian bidder won one item, and now my other item, also very similar, was also won by a colombian bidder!!
Now the thing that bothers me, or strikes me as very strange....both of these winners immediately emailed me back at the end of the auction with their address, in a very similar format! (but their names and addresses are different)
Here is the format of the emails they sent me, both of them in this format.
name: *********
address: *********
address2: *********
city: *********
state: *********
postal code (ZIP): n/a
country: Colombia
phone: (57) *********
Now bidder#2 (the one who didn't contact me in advance) says he will pay with exchangepath. Bidder #1 just says to ship to his family in colombia, I haven't contacted him about shipping rates yet.
Ok now asking you all..is this some kind of new credit card fraud ring? Examining the addresses, they seem to be in different cities and areas, and the phone no's are different too.
ARRRGH. You thought NPB bidders are bad, but I've had 4 fraudulent buyers in the past 3 weeks. They're even worse, and thank God I haven't been burned yet.
(Or maybe I'm overreacting and they're from political families in Colombia and they're looking to burn some of their *ahem* crop money )
posted on November 12, 2000 09:47:25 PM new
1. newbies, both no feedback with glasses.
2. 40-50$
3. no indication of express mail or urgency yet....
i had originally thought cc fraud was russian and eastern european + indonesian domain and colombia and south america was for drugs. Does not look good so far....
posted on November 12, 2000 10:23:19 PM new
ok...now i am like 99% sure some kind of fraud is going on...both of them gave me this song and dance
Hi,
i need to ship this item to my family in Colombia (the country). If you can make an international shipping directly to my family (i pay all the shipping cost) please reply with the shipping cost. I dont want you to send the item directly to my hose so i can avoid the shipping cost from you to me.
Only reason I am still 1% unsure is bidder #1 said if I don't want exchangepaht I will have to wait a few days.
posted on November 12, 2000 10:27:09 PM new
Why not up the ante & tell them you don't take credit cards for overseas transactions & they will have to send international money order & give them a deadline by which the payment must be received.
posted on November 13, 2000 07:41:26 AM new
Exchangepath does NOT have international accounts. These are definitely fraud. Contact exchangepath immediately and do not ship!
posted on November 13, 2000 10:28:35 AM newyisgood It sounds like the buyer is in the U.S. and is willing to pay using Exchangepath and have the items shipped from the seller to Colombia.
I'd go with eventer's suggestion. Nix the cc and ask for an IMO.
posted on November 13, 2000 10:37:18 AM new
The buyer in these cases is always an American. Remember Romanian George? Even if I was ordering something for my foreign relatives, I would have them shipped to me and I would take care of delivery to them. There is a very good reason to ask for items to be shipped to a foreign country when using a US CC. 1) If it is a stolen card, there is no local person to track down and tracking down foreign crooks is tough. 2) If it is not a stolen card, the cardholder can still claim it was unauthorized. Since it was not shipped to the proper address, the seller automatically loses.
If the buyer is american, they can pay with money order, achex (works checking account to checking account), bidpay or any other method that does not allow charge backs. Then seller is free to ship anywhere. http://www.ygoodman.com [email protected]
posted on November 13, 2000 10:43:44 AM new
I had a sale on Amazon zshops, distinctly American name, shipping instructions to Brazil--I had a funny feeling about it, for the person paid me way way waaaayyy more postage than they needed to (thieves are generous with stolen money, no?) so I held onto the package over the weekend and sure enough Amazon contacted me and the card was "invalid". they were happy I had not sent the merchandise.
posted on November 13, 2000 03:04:23 PM new
Ask the buyer if they are a student or whatever living in the U.S., if you want, but for sure ask to be paid by money order. The winner might even have a legit ExchangePath account, but I would not blame you to be extra careful here.
My brother lives in Colombia and it is not unheard of to buy items here and have them shipped there--eliminating an unnecessary double shipping charge.
About having a second Colombian bid--if you have good items for sale, word-of-mouth will get other paisanos bidding on your stuff, too. Good luck. You may have a whole new market!
)