Is this a fraud?

[godboma]

Hi, I need your input on this. I received this inquiry to my info email of my website:

Hello,
I will like to order some items from you and get it shipped to my place in Japan, also i will be paying via my credit card which was issued in the United states as this is the only available means of payment. I have a shipper which you'll contact regarding shipping and i will also like to know the types of credit card you accept..... Let me know if i am welcome to place an order.

Is this a fraud attempt? I know that this kind of shipping services exist. My category of items is low in fraud as they are not easy to resell (not a big market).

Thanks,
Mario

[axe_n_gear_music]

Mario,
Personally, I would stay away from this guy. This has BS written all over it.
It may be wise to put on your site that you only accept CC payments from verified customers within North America. That may stave off some of the fraudsters.

And yes there are third party shipping companies out there that are legit- I just did a sale to one last week- the shipper, located in New York, bought and paid for an instrument on behalf of his client in Russia. (I shipped to his verified US address in NY, and he then ships to his customer in Russia).

Cheers,
AXE

[coxengines]

It's not necessarily fraud but it could be, of course.

I quickly had a glance at your listings and your offerings are not exactly what a scammer would target. You sell what I would call low-risk items.

Ask for his phone # and give him a call. Smamers like to hide and don't like to provide contact info.

Every month we have at least one buyer that goes through our checkout, pays with a credit card billed to one country; whereas shipping is to another country.

Proceed with due diligence but I would not write the potential buyer off from the start especially it it's just a small order like under $100.

If things turn bad you can always file a claim with Canada Post and get reimbursed.

Bernie

[dipmicro]

Not necessarily a fraud. Actually, there is very little that can go wrong, this will be a sale to USA assuming he wants you to ship to his forwarder.

This is very popular way to shop, since forwarder consolidates purchases into single package and you pay duties and charges on one combined package as opposed on many smaller ones. There is entire companies making their living by allowing their countrymen to "Shop in USA". I even heard of charter flights of shoppers from Europe to New York. They are willing to spend 400 EUR + 1-2 nights hotel to shop in Big Apple and it still makes economical sense to them.

Off topic - I start seeing increase in Japanese eBay customer. We did not have any and now we have one every other day. Maybe it's word of mouth, maybe eBay got some foothold in JP while Rakuten was not looking.

[godboma]

Thanks guys for the info. I am selling low risk items so that is why I am considering this sell. I will contact the customer and proceed from there.

Thanks,
Mario

[axe_n_gear_music]

"I am selling low risk items so that is why I am considering this sell."
Yes, very true, there really is a big difference in selling low risk/low cost items as opposed to large, expensive stuff. Good thought- and good luck!

(Guess I'm just a little "once bitten twice shy" on this kind of thing, 'cause my items are in a much higher risk category for fraud, and I have been stung in this way once before).

Cheers,
AXE

[coxengines]

cause my items are in a much higher risk category

I would have recommended an even more cautious approach if Mario was peddling IPods, laptops, cameras 🙂

Bernie

[godboma]

I started by selling Xbox on eBay about 4 years ago. Out of 5 auctions, 4 were won by Nigerian. I quit that selling line in the same week .;-)

[godboma]

I think I got my answer....


Received this email from another person:

Good day, I want to place an order in your store,and I will like to know if you ship to Tokyo,JAPAN and my payment will be remitted via MasterCard issued in US bank. So please let me know if you can assist me with the order,and please do not forget to include your website in your reply.Your quick response will be highly appreciated,I will be very glad if you treat this email with good concern. Regards,

Not the same name, not the same email but the same scam...

I love it when they are over doing it 😄 This guy does not even remember from which website he asked the question?

[ricarmic]

Hi! As a note, I get these all the time, the usual give away is that they never say what it is that they are interested in.......just stuff from your site....

[ricarmic]

oops I hit send too quick, they are also asking you to remind them what website you are, that also is a giveaway....

[craftycatsattic]

Hi! As a note, I get these all the time, the usual give away is that they never say what it is that they are interested in.......just stuff from your site....

Yes I get them all the time too and it's the same. They always mention paying with a credit card and never say what they are interested in and eBay is also never mentioned. Seeing how I don't even have an off-eBay store, I have to ask myself why they didn't just contact me through eBay.

I wonder also how these people get their hands on our contact information (although I do have a few ideas how they do it and figure we all just go on a list of potential phishing targets).

[godboma]

I wonder also how these people get their hands on our contact information (although I do have a few ideas how they do it and figure we all just go on a list of potential phishing targets).

They used my general info@ email. So that is not to hard to figure out.

By the way, I answered the second email by saying that I do not ship oversea but I have a good friend of mine that may do. I gave him the email of the first guy. ]:)

[jakeeangel]

Intersting tidbit of info.....

I have a Sony ebook reader and on the forum I go to there are the odd spammers. It's Chinese folks selling North American credit card numbers with CVV's.

It'd be a scam. I really hate painting everyone from that part of the world with the same brush but you know....an awful lot of the time it's true.

ROFL at giving him the email addy of the first guy!!! LOL :^O

[femmefan1946]

I really hate painting everyone from that part of the world with the same brush but you know....an awful lot of the time it's true.

Yes, that's the second worst part about the plethora of scam listing from Asia, primarily China.

Out of 1.3 billion people, the vast majority must be honest. Those scammers are giving 1,299,999,000 others a bad name.