It is not normal. The merchant bank determines the requirements as
to what is acceptable. It's not tough at all. Just talk to your
provider and ask them for their requirements for credit card
transactions.
I had some small stones cut for me in Thailand just a couple of
weeks ago. Their factory is in China, so all shipments originate
there. When shipment was ready, I received an email with attachment,
which I was supposed to fill out. The questions were basically name,
address, and credit card number.
I refused to comply on basis that it was insecure transaction. We
exchanged few emails and apparently it was their bank requirements.
They had few cases when people order and then claim that it wasn’t
them and their credit card was stolen.
I still did not fill out their form, but I sent another email
confirming that I am aware of transaction, and I am authorizing the
use of my credit card to be charged for the stated amount, which was
satisfactory.
It looked as as scam, but actually they were only trying to protect
themselves in a clumsy way.
I've not read all the responses to this so someone may have
already brought this point up: I have spoken with our bank and
confirmed that the person who sends the bank transfer can take the
money out of your account without your permission (such as they
complain they did not receive the items or other reasons). The
banker said it does not happen often, but can happen. We had felt
comfortable taking bank transfer on international orders, but I am
not so sure now
I’m not sure how you bank operates, but here’s one way that might
work.
Open another account, checking or savings. Then when you have an
international funds transfer, use that account.
Prior to doing the transfer, transfer the require funds from your
usual business acct to the ‘international acct’.
That way the acct number given to the other party only has enough in
it for the transaction. Depending on the bank. you may be able to do
the transfer online; no trips to the bank
I was reading this post and would like to add a comment. I am a real
estate attorney and my bank is First Citizens. Most all of the funds
coming into my trust account for loan closings are quite large and
are wire transactions. First Citizens does not allow a recall of a
wire without your permission. It depends on the bank. I administered
an estate a few years ago where a party recalled more from the
decedent’s account than they actually transferred in. No one at
Wachovia, the decedent’s bank, could explain why. Check around with
different banks.
Is this a normal thing to be asked for in the US in general? If I
was purchasing something I would be very wary myself of being
asked for a picture of my CC front and back. This gives out all the
numbers on the credit card and also my signature. I would
definitely agree with asking for a registered delivery address for
the card and being suspicious of someone using more than one card
etc. It's a tough one to get everything right!
But you need all the numbers on the credit card and a signature to
do a transaction. If you went into a retail store and their cc
machine was down they’d make an imprint of your card. And they’d ask
for your signature. What’s the diff?
It makes sense that PayPal would provide a means for the merchant to
set the sales tax. I can remember when it seemed to be the same state
wide, but now it seems to vary with municipality, county, special tax
district, whatever, so leaving it up to the merchant allows it to be
accurate (providing the merchant knows for sure).
It sure would be easier for everyone if the federal government would
just establish a nationwide sales tax of 15% to 20% then parcel it
out as they see fit. At least every merchant would know what to
charge. Oh, I’m sorry, that was a nightmare I had one night.
Hi guys and gals, I thought I would tell you the story of our latest
scam artist.
Last month we had a new customer contact us. He was knowledgeable
and actually called twice to arrange a purchase. He was, of course,
in a hurry for the metals, which is not unusual in this business. He
ordered over $600 worth of 22K/Stg Bi-metal. He, of course, again,
wanted to pay the extra $43 for UPS Red shipping. There are flags
going up at this point but not enough to stop it. The Chase Bank
Money Order arrives and we ship it that day. (Ooops!) The next
morning I present the M.O. at a Chase Bank. It doesn’t clear at the
teller window. The assistant manager takes it and starts to make
calls. It takes 10-15 minutes to figure out that it is a forgery. A
well done forgery. It was perfect except for some wayward numbers
that did not match up.
I immediately called back to the office. We put in a a request to
UPS to stop delivery. Apparently the perpetrator was not in when the
first delivery was attempted. (Luck comes in to play.) At this point
UPS drops the ball and kind of lost track of it. We really could not
find out anything about the package until it arrived back at the
studio. (Sigh of relief here!)
On the same day that the forgery was identified we took all the
and filed a police report. Although we provided
location, phone numbers and the guy may have still been waiting for
the delivery, it was maybe too much effort to contact the Ontario, CA
police. As near as we can tell the detectives did nothing with it.
So, moral to the story, there are Chase Money Orders out there that
are forgeries. They look very good. You will not be able to tell
they are bad until the bank actually runs the numbers. They may come
from:
Dwayne Wilson
Finest Degree Jewelry
1000 W 4th St
Ontario, CA 91762
If you happen to know or see Dwayne thank him for us. It was an
interesting exercise. Remember, when the hair on the back of your
neck starts to prickle… Look up and see what is going on!
If you happen to know or see Dwayne thank him for us. It was an
interesting exercise.
Makes me wonder a couple things.
do you think Dwayne has any idea that with this attempt, almost
eleven thousand people within the jewelry industry/biz/hobby/etc,
including reps from many of the prime suppliers, have just been
alerted by someone they trust, to watch out for the guy. Some of
those alertees might not be too far from his location…
If so, what do you think he feels about that? Worried or not?
Will it make any difference?
Glad you got the goods back, Bill. Now, we have to figure out just
how our rather large organization, which still isn’t a majority of
the folks in the industry, can take steps to actually give a few of
such people a moments pause before they mess with jewelers again…
I had a similar experience recently with a firm in India. I ordered
half a kilo of sterling silver washers and disks from Beadman, Inc.,
and paid for them through Paypal. Beadman said they would deliver to
me, here in Australia, at an agreed date, which was a month after
the order (I had a trip I had to take and so asked for the washers
and disks to be delivered after my return), then once the date came
and went and the goods did not arrive, they said they hadn’t even
made them yet. At this point, I had had enough, and asked for a
refund. They kept promising the refund would be sent until after
Paypal’s 45 day limit in which you can file complaints, had passed.
Needless to say, it is now six months later and the refund has never,
and I’m sure, will never, be returned. Just a warning to anyone
thinking of trading with this firm - don’t!
Also be aware of Chase, Wells Fargo and other bankcard checks- they
send em out with newly activated, or nearly activated credit cards
and the cardholders or pre-approvees toss them, thieves grab them
and they get circulated on the cardholder’s account… which has a
stop payment or reversal of charges on it by the time the product
reaches the fake address… happened to a friend of mine in the
french quarter on an Omega watch with 18kt gold accents he sold
before the check that appeared good and appeared to be a check from a
bank (the buyer so-to-speak, had a fake driver’s license which was
recorded by hand on the “check”) cleared…description given to the
police since the guy went into the shop twice, but no further
response ( or detecting!) from NOPD expected…Loss of
$3,912.86…happens…Guy wasn’t a native New Orleanian and didn’t
realise there is no Wells Fargo branch in New Orleans!..rer
I’ve had pretty good luck in similar circumstances by phoning up
neighbors of the crooks and asking for their help in making the
miscreant behave justly.
This guy (same (fake) name & address) recently sent us a Chase money
order out of the blue for 14k clasps, $700.00, overpaying for UPS
Express.
Nothing about the order seemed true, so I called Chase. After
checking, an agent told me that the account was legitimate and
active. My suspicions had been raised, however, so I pressed for
more verification. The agent was surprised to find that while the
account was legitimate,
that particular check number had already been paid. I sent the fake
m.o. to Chase. Be on your guard: the same crook sent us a fake
Postal money order two years ago, same premise, but using a different
fake name & address. In that earlier case, I noticed the watermark
was missing and turned it in to the Postal Inspector. A copy I kept
showed that it was prepared by the same guy who tried us with the
fake Chase. This creep is obviously a habitual con man.
Say each of those of the nearly 11K, who use Social Media, were to
post Dwayne’s data on their space shared with “EVERYONE” who reads
their pages, how well
Known his shenanigans will become, worldwide. FaceBook, Twitter,
Linkedin, etc.
I believe it will be a fair warning to those still blinded by a
potential big sale, to the realities of chicanery.
For the newbies out there, another scam email came in today. I
Googled the address on Google maps, and found it was the Church of
Christ Scientist. I called them to let them know they were being used
for a scam. It was the 3rd call they have received. The email was
suspicious because the sender went through Microsoft’s Live email
program. The email is below:
I'm James Barry from Norway, i want to place an order from you.
I know the difficulties encountered when shipping internationally,
But that will not be a problem because i am registered with a
shipping company which i have used severally times without any
delay nor damage.
Before i place this order,i want you to notify me if i can make
payment of the order with my Mc/Visa cards because as for now i
can only make payment with my US credit card account
so if it's okay by you kindly get back to me with
contact details and please reconfirm your website so as to know
if i'm right with the site. I awaiting your swift response so as
to list out the items needed so you can then proceed with the
order.
so if it's okay by you kindly get back to me with contact details
and please reconfirm your website so as to know if i'm right with
the site.
This line is enough to turn on the warnning lights. You see, since
they send hundereds of these emails aday, without even looking at
your products, they need to know which fish got caought in their
nets…
a customer that does not know with which website they deal is a scam
robot…
This is a very common scam. The supposed custome has captured or
cloned card details and use a maildrop address for you to ship to. I
dont bother answering them usually but occasionally tell them I dont
believe that Norway/Australia/Canada are really parts of Nigeria so
wont send. Note that the content is very short n specifics-I saw
your shop and before I order etc My onlin shop has a checkout which
can be utilised quite easily and does the standard fraud checks
automatically. If you want to believe that it is a real customer ask
them to send a scan of both sides of the card and then tell them you
will only ship to the card’s registered address. You wont hear back
from a fraudster because they dont physically have the card. The
tusted shipping company usually doesnt get paid either and will
chase you for the money to boot.
since they send hundereds of these emails aday, without even
looking at your products, they need to know which fish got caught
in their nets.....
I had an inquiry recently that I’m still not 100% sure was a scam,
but I played it safe. I got an email praising the work on my site and
asking for prices of the pieces I make. Since there were no actual
specifics wxcept my name, I asked what piece(s) were of most
interest, as I could not send a comprehensive list. We went back and
forth like this, with the guy saying OK, what do you have between
$300 and $600 (or some such), Still nothing specific to me.
I finally said, sorry, I have to be sure this isn’t a scam, so tell
me at least one name or description of a piece that caught your eye,
and I never heard back. Either it was a scam, or he was offended, but
better safe than sorry.
I had one recently too - a gentleman(?) emailed me and said he
wanted $2000 worth of product from my website - he listed the items
too, which was impressive. The first flag went up when he wanted me
to charge extra $600 to his card, $400 for his shipping agent (who
would come by my house personally to pick up the jewelry - how many
flags can you count?) - apparently his shipping agency couldn’t
process cards at this time - I was welcome to keep $200 for my
trouble. He stated the items were for a store he was opening in
England - no website yet, and he couldn’t respond to my request for a
direct phone conversation because he didn’t have access to a phone -
just wifi. Despite the number of alarms (which came up slowly, one
thing after another adding up through the course of a two-week
internet correspondence) I kept on, asking him for a bank reference,
an online presence (Facebook, anything!) some sort of identity
confirmation (his name was Michael Smith, I believe, but his English
was not native) - he finally, grumpily, “at great personal
inconvenience” sent me the WORST cut-and-pasted driver’s license -
and all my concerns were answered. No, thank you. But the time and
energy spent was impressive - no telling what he could be
accomplishing were he pursuing a different career.
Sounds like a fellow from the UK about two years ago who wanted to
buy two cabochons from me. I quoted him a $3000 price (very
inflated); he said that he would send me a cashier’s check. Check
came in envelope with no return address (how in the world would I
send anything to him) and with a UK stamp; but it was a check drawn
on a Baptist church in Arizona. Wow he must have thought I was the
stupidest person in the world. I had my bank verify the check. The
account had been closed for about two years. About a week later,
this person wanted to know when I was going to send him the stones. I
replied, when he actually paid for them. Haven’t heard another word.
FWIW: I wouldn’t have imagined that it was as bad as it is, but
Craigslist seems to be almost nothing but scammers anymore. I
recently used it to sell some items, as I moved, and to look at some
places to rent here. 99% scammers. Sad. I wish these #*^( would get
real lives.