posted on November 20, 2000 11:07:52 AM
I've faced a lot of CC fraud lately with people from those high-risk countries, and I'm getting very pissed off about this. I'm thinking about adding this line to the end of my auctions:
I WILL REPORT ANY FRAUDULENT BIDDERS AND ANY ATTEMPT AT FRAUD TO THE PROPER UNITED STATES AUTHORITIES AND COOPERATE TO PROSECUTE ANY SUCH CRIMES TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAW. THIS INCLUDES BUT NOT RESTRICTED TO BIDDERS USING STOLEN CREDIT CARDS, STOLEN PAYPAL/EXCHANGEPATH ACCOUNTS, ETC.
Will that antagonize legitimate bidders or drive away potential customers? I'd like some advice about this..
Reason I was so angry before is because these people actually think I'll believe their song and dance and have the gall to ask for "their" money back.
PLEASE READ: I AM NOT ASKING FOR CC PAYMENTS FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY OFFER TO PAY WITH CC DO IT AUTOMATICALLY WITHOUT ASKING ME. Sheesh. I don't know how many times i have to spell this out. What i'm asking is how i can drive these bidders away from my auctions.
(Sorry about earlier Pat, I hope this is ok ;P)
posted on November 20, 2000 11:41:35 AM
I don't, they are the ones who initiate the offer....my questions is not whether or not they are frauds or how to protect myself but how to keep them from bidding on my items.
posted on November 20, 2000 12:33:01 PM
I have to agree with REDDEAR...why accept CC payments from anyone/place you're not comfortable with?
As far as your added warning, I doubt it will scare any real theives off, but might scare "regular" bidders into thinking you have too many scary rules for them to want to deal with you.
I'm from Canada, and only accept cash from International bidders, period. It works well for me.
posted on November 20, 2000 01:24:43 PM
My solution to unexpected payments going into my Paypal account was to change the default email address for my account. The new email address is only used for Paypal and nothing else. It's so different from my auction id that no one would guess it. If anyone wants to send me a payment, they have to ask me for the account email address - and I won't give it to them unless we have a buy-sell agreement already.
El
"The customer may not always be right, but she is always the customer."
posted on November 20, 2000 01:39:26 PM
Something in your listing must be convincing these scammers that you're a mark, that you just might take their card.
If you take cards directly, then you probably have to make it clear: no cards from Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, ...
Don't threaten. It affects the good guys, and the reason why CC fraud is the rule in the old Soviet block is that there is no threat of enforcement there. Some crook in Russia sending a phoney credit card number has absolutely no fear of prosecution, no matter what you do.
posted on November 20, 2000 01:44:49 PMTc61380 ....... You can't, does that help? The only 3rd party service [that I know of] that allows you to control who pays via CC, is Billpoint. You can set up your auctions so that only high bidders that receive a Billpoint invoice from you, can pay via that method.
Perhaps next time try being more clear from the get go, and you won't have to go sheesh so often.
Kraftdinner ....... I hope Krs doesn't see that ID. Long story, I'm sure he'll be happy to explain.
posted on November 20, 2000 02:00:59 PM
Part of the problem is the sort of thing you are selling is easy to resell for cash.
I would put a line - "No credit card sales from eastern europe or asia due to high levels of fraud."
posted on November 20, 2000 02:02:49 PM
This is what's making you a target:
I will accept payment with Visa/Mastercard/Discover/Diner's
Club/JCB/American Express through ExchangePath or Yahoo Paydirect PayPal.
Those sites [at least some of them] allow people to send you the funds directly, con artists from foreign countries could careless what your International TOS state. If you allow them to send the $$$ with a fraudulent CC, they will.
Billpoint is the only online 3rd party service that allows you to control who sends you $$$ via a CC. Just don't use the Instant Payment option & you'll be fine.
posted on November 20, 2000 02:26:31 PM
I agree with both macandjan and reddeer.
The ad looks like you're a promiscuous accepter of credit cards, selling something of significant desire to a class of people without money.
I'd say "credit card buyers from most countries can pay via ...", and I'd say that in a prominent way. Doesn't irritate the good guys. Clues in the bad guys that they're unlikely to succeed.
It's just my style, but I tend to be more matter of fact about the international stuff. Maybe I miss sales, but no one has ever sent mail saying "do you really ship to Germany?" Occasionally they ask shipping.
posted on November 20, 2000 03:14:49 PM
thank you all for you sugestions...i completely took out the line about exchangepath and paydirect, is ther anything else?
