posted on December 21, 2004 10:22:24 PM
I received an email....subject saw my auctions awhile back, and was impressed with what I had, and with the feed back I have received.
He emailed if I could handle large orders on any of my items. I emailed him and said in some cases, and said it would depend, etc. I included the link to my online store. He emailed back the other day and wants to order 550 chess sets, and wanted to know if I take credit cards and can ship to the UK.
I told him I can ship to the UK (shipping cost on him of course), and yes I can take credit cards.
Now a couple of questions. He wants to pay for these with cc and the cost without shipping would be $84,000.00! I have a premier account with Paypal....their limit is $3000.00 per day spending. I don't know what kind of CC he wants to use..and it would need to be paid in US dollars of course.
I do have another Merchant Account that I got when I bought my web site, but not sure on how to use this account, as I already had Paypal, and their service is easy to use.
I have read about fraud with Cashiers Checks that have been going around. Anyone heard of any with Credit Cards?
I would think the CC would not be processed if it wasn't any good. Some ideas to cover my a...ss on this would be helpfull.
My son thought if this was a import/export company as this claims to be...lots of times they us American Express. I don't know if Paypal, or my Merchant Account takes those, I would need to check that of course.
I did receive the man's name and address as I told him I would need to know that to calculate the shipping cost. Is there a way to check if an address is good in the UK?
Sorry this is so long, however if this is on the up and up, and so far our emails back and forth have been leaning toward this being for real, I don't want to "scare" him away, nor do I want to get "took" like I have read about has happened to some folks. I did tell him that I would need his company name for me to accept CC of this large amount, however he did not include that yet. Don't know if it was intentional with the email he sent including his address or not. I thought if he gave me a Business name, that could be useful. He said he has offices in Paris, Belgium, and a couple others I forgot right now, and Nigeria. His main office is in UK and that's where he wants it shipped. The Nigeria part is what caught my eye, as I read some frauds there before.
posted on December 21, 2004 10:36:29 PM
Nigeria? Yikes. Be VERY careful here. I guess I'd want cold hard US dollars in my hot little fist before I'd ever ship. Maybe I'm just too conservative on things like this, though. . . .
posted on December 21, 2004 10:41:18 PM
Please tell me I read your post wrong. I got the impression you were going to entertain the thought of accepting an $84K payment through Paypal for a shipment to a foreign country. If this guy is on the up and up, there is no reason in the world this tycoon cannot have a cashier's check, drawn on Wells Fargo, Bank of America or CitiBank delivered to your front door by FedEx. It will only take a quick trip downtown to the bank to verify the authenticity of the check. I would not advise you to walk away from the deal. After the mention of Nigeria, I would RUN from the scam.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on December 21, 2004 11:03:00 PM
sparkz is absolutely right. No way accept this on a credit card or any payment system where the payment could be voided or reversed. A cashier's check is a very secure method, your bank can confirm its authenticity before depositing to your account. Even large corporations would not accept such a large payment from an unknown customer without security, or without going through a serious credit/reference check.
posted on December 21, 2004 11:30:38 PM
why not start a small bank account just for this 1 purpose. it wont cost a lot. then tell him to send the money by telegraphic transferr to this account. if he is genuine then it will be done. if not you know he is a fraud. cheaper for you. if he is nigerian it wont happen. been there done that. a payment by telegraphic transferr is not reversable so far as i know.
[ edited by agate18 on Dec 22, 2004 01:20 AM ]
posted on December 22, 2004 12:42:38 AM
I'd be very careful. Nigeria is a red flag. Fraud is Nigeria's second biggest industry behind oil. Why hasn't the guy called you on the phone? If he's such a big shot, why doesn't he go to China and buy them direct? Don't take Paypal, he could easily make a chargeback. I would only accept a cashiers check and then wait at least 1 month for it to clear before shipping. Be very careful unless you can afford to lose $84,000+.
posted on December 22, 2004 02:27:28 AM
Thank you very much folks for your input. Some very good ideas. I do agree "Nigeria" was a red flag for me too. That is why I want to be careful.
The deal about paying via CC was a new twist though. I thought of asking for a Certified Check, but somewhere I had read that is how some got taken on that deal. You receive a certified check for $5,000.00. Deposit it in your bank. Get an email shortly after asking for a "new" one sent back for "$3000.00" and keep "2,000.00" for your trouble, as"an emergency came up and need the money back"..."for burial"..or something like that! Some got stung on that deal. I just hadn't heard anything on CC's. I do want to be careful, but if it's the real deal...well that's a lot of steaks!
I did start trying to do a search on UK reverse searches, email searches, etc. Some things are coming up ok, but some aren't. The email is only partly right. There is an email service like what he used, but didn't come up with his email id before the @ part. There is a person by the same name in exporting, but different address. Just some things match, some don't. So will keep on my toes.
Thank you so much for ideas so far...
Hope ya all have a Very Happy Holiday, and hope the New Year can be GREAT for all...
Pattie
P.S. Would like to share a good thing happened this month. First of all my son and husband are very ill, so money is very tight...well our hot water tank went out this month, and not enough money to get a new one! Well Hooray....just got my web site online and got a legit order for almost $300.00, and another one for $100.00 this month. Payment went via Paypal, orders sent out, everything smooth....Yes Virginia, THERE REALLY IS A SANTA!!
My site is getting indexed by many, many search engines all over the world, and I haven't listed with any of them even once, even Yahoo, which I heard was hard to get listed. I have only had my site up little over a month. Lots and lots of hits so far. Nearly 6000 pages have been view so far. Must be doing something right. Layed off Ebay for the holidays, and will try there later. Love the "rush" ya get posting and watching the auctions!!!
posted on December 22, 2004 05:46:53 AM
My sister and I get offers like that and our store items are vintage and one or two of a kind. We have never gotten that far into a deal because we never answer but "they" write to offer to buy $1,000+ of an item in our store.
Be afraid, be very afraid of this kind of offer.
-----o----o----o----o----o----o----o----o
“The illiterate of the future will be the person ignorant of the use of the camera as well as of the pen.”
Maholy-Nagy, Vision in Motion, 1947
posted on December 22, 2004 06:57:38 AM
This is 90% fraud,business to business transaction should be conducted thru wire transfer,esp for such large sum of money.
Most manufacturers/wholesalers do not like credit card as the volume may be high,dollar amount may be high but the wholesale markup is not as high and credit card fee eats into the margin.
Another reason is that wiretransfer cannot be reversed,once money landed in your account,it cannot be reversed.
There have been fraud in UK,Uk banks are now rather stringent on wiretransfer,the name and account of the recipient must match EXACTLY,say you are sending 300 pounds to your vendor whose bank account name is Kensington studio and your instruction is Kensington company,the Bank may not deposit the fund into that account.
Overseas credit card transaction fraud would not get back to you as fast as domestic ones,it could be 3-6 months after money is deposited in your account.
FYI,Uk credit card bill to addr can be verified online when you process the credit card thru your merchant account,if not,call the UK bank,they speak english over there.
-sig file -------Life is one big happy 'All You Can Eat' buffet .
posted on December 22, 2004 07:00:06 AM
If you have his IP address,you can check to see where he is located,unless he is on satellite,then it may not be accurate.
-sig file -------Life is one big happy 'All You Can Eat' buffet .
posted on December 22, 2004 07:26:15 AM
Having lived in Nigeria for a year...and knowing what I know from that experience...I wouldn't even entertain the idea of making any kind of a deal with them.. sorry, but theft and fraud are taught at a very early age and fine tuned to an art over there..
Please be careful.. Maggie
posted on December 22, 2004 08:06:03 AM
Yes, we're have Luxemburgers for Christmas dinner this year, instead of Turkey, just can't trust things from the Middle East...
posted on December 22, 2004 08:07:35 AM
see,he would ask you to ship 500 chess sets to nigeria,so may as well mention it early.
Somone received an order asked to be shipped to an address in Norway via fed exp.
When Fed exp ,Norway cannot deliver the item,they took a closer look at the addr and decipher it should be Nigeria,so they route it to Nigeria and billed the shipper extra.
-sig file -------Life is one big happy 'All You Can Eat' buffet .
posted on December 22, 2004 08:08:15 AM
By the way, there's a local weekend radio show here with atop cop in Canada who just works on major fraud cases. His constant admonishment for offers like this one: "If it sounds too good to be true, then it is."
posted on December 22, 2004 09:44:24 AM
This is actually a very old scam. This person has a stolen credit card number. Actually likely many stolen numbers. I bet this person is in an extreme hurry to have you run the credit card number to see if it works as well. What I do with these when I get them is ask for the credit card number and for the phone number to the bank that issued the card. Every time so far, the scammers have balked at giving the phone number. If they are legite, they can get the phone number off of the back of the cards. But because the numbers are stolen, they won't have them. Don't ask for payment in any other method as they also do send fraudulant money orders as well.
As the old saying goes, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
.
.
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Alive in 2005
posted on December 22, 2004 11:20:25 AM
FWIW, actually even a cashier's check can come back at you indefinitely. We had a sizable check from Hong Kong a while back. It cleared. Whenever we asked the bank whether it was not 100% our money, they demurred. Told us it was 99.9% our money, but a stolen cashier's check can take months to be detected.
posted on December 22, 2004 12:04:44 PM
Japerton -- Thanks for providing that website! I have had a blast reading how the scammers got scammed. Kristin is absolutely hysterical! Now, I have to actually get some work done ...
posted on December 22, 2004 12:52:48 PM
There are always wholesalers looking to buy in quanity. See if they would be willing to buy 1 set, so thay can examine quality, etc. If the deal works out, then sell larger amounts.
posted on December 22, 2004 09:34:53 PM
Here is a good piece of advise. I would NEVER start a MAJOR business transaction without doing a google search on the persons name, the Email address, the postal address, so on. These Scammers tend to take a name and use it with all of their scams.
Also, go to Scamorama.com. Read up on Nigeria. I would not do business with ANYONE in nigeria unless it was a slam dunk deal (less than $100, paid in cash in advance).
posted on December 22, 2004 09:55:53 PM
I for one, appreciate the fact that aroundtheworldtreasures brought this subject to the Ebay Outlook. These Nigerian scams have ben around for a long time and they will persist as long as there is an internet. The only way that people can become aware of them is in a public forum such as this. The input from posters who have knowledge of these scams, either through research or personal experience, is invaluable and helps keep all of us on our toes. This scammer will eventually find a sucker who will fall for his proposition and lose a great deal of money in the process. Hopefully it won't be someone who lurks or posts on Vendio's boards.
A $75.00 solid state device will always blow first to protect a 25 cent fuse ~ Murphy's Law
posted on December 23, 2004 12:47:01 PM
his phone number and addr in nigeria can be real,so what??
he has to live somewhere!!
There was a time life insurance companies were losing millions due to nigerian policyholders who claimed to have died in nigeria,if they sent an ivestigator over there,sure,he will be presented with a death certificate signed by local doctor,he will be taken to his grave!!,If he poked around too much,if he knows how,he risks losing his life.
cleared cashier check - if i steal a check and cashed it,it would take time to find out if the buyer is patient thinking goods are now on high sea.
wire transfer is the way to go,if he cant do wiretransfer,he is not a legit businessman !!
-sig file -------Life is one big happy 'All You Can Eat' buffet .
posted on December 23, 2004 02:11:41 PM
If he is a real business in the UK you can do a google search on the phone # and address. At least it would be a starting point.
posted on December 24, 2004 03:07:16 AM
Just thought I would update a little so far. I have done some searching, and some things pan out, and some I can't come up with. I came across a site that handles fraud cases in the UK, and forwarded some information that I have so far...email address, his name, the address he wants items shipped to, etc. Haven't heard back from anyone yet. Some sites are hard to search for information....you know ya click on a site ya think will give some info to what you're looking for, and it is just another site full of links, that take you to another site full of links, and it goes on and on.....drives me crazy!
Haven't heard back to his business name, phone #, etc. yet. Could be the holidays, could be just an attempted scam. If it's fraud attempt, I will report it, no big loss, it most likely is too good to be true, however sometimes over the years I have been pleasantly surprised.
So for now I will enjoy the holidays, and look forward to a new year, and getting more auctions up soon.
Hope ya all have a very safe and pleasant holiday.....
Merry Christmas to All...and to All a good night, !!
posted on December 24, 2004 10:30:06 AM
What's all this about our Nigerian brothers and sisters? They have been very good to me. Already this year I have offers for $14,000,000 they want to send me.
