Take a look at this!

[mark27uk3]

Hi Guys,

 

I have just received this email through the contact_us form in my store and would love to hear your thoughts about it.

 

Hello,

I am the Managing Director of B&B Enterprises a newly Established company here in The Gambia.I want to order some Phone Chargers Systems.I hereby request quotation for the following:

200pcs of Bosch 509 Mains Charger

200pcs of Motorola 920/v50 Mains Charger

200pcs of Motorola E365 Mains Charger

200pcs of Trium Mars Mains Charger

including the freight charge by air to my location.

20a Bundung High Way,Serrekunda,The Gambia.

I hope to hear from you soonest.

Best Regards

Mathew Wall

B&B Enterprises.

 

Thanks

 

Mark :-"

[avoisin]

Hi Guys,

 

I have just received this email through the contact_us form in my store and would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Thanks

 

Mark :-"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That is seriously bizarre. 800 cell phone chargers? Only thing I could come up with searching on the web is that B&B might stand for bed and breakfast, so perhaps this guy is setting up chargers for a hotel of some kind, if it's a legit query. Perhaps equipping the staff of a hotel with cell phones could generate this kind of need. On a related note, I just heard about a hotel being planned in Hawaii that will have a staff of 1000, so this would be well below that.

 

That of course also gives a possibility of 409 type phone scams, for needing lots of phones, so it could be something along that vein as well. I don't know if The Gambia is also well known for that sort of thing.

 

I guess I'm really not sure. It certainly seems worthwhile to follow up on it, and at least ask what he needs so many chargers for.

 

Best of luck!!!

 

Scott

[Guest]

I think that the B&B might be B2B or something like that....

[Rob123]

Since you're asking for opinions, I'll give you my 2 cents

 

I would be very careful:

Newly established company with an obscure name

First time customer

Large order or electronics

Foreign country

 

Also, ask yourself why you think he picked you?

HTH,

Robert

[TAPAKAH]

Scam 100%.

[mark27uk3]

Thanks guys for all your feedback so far, just one think 'TAPAKAH' how on earth can you tell this is a scam just by reading my post??

 

Mark

[avoisin]

I gotta say, after more reflection it certainly smells of fraud or scam. It's such a big order, it's got the whole foreign angle, it definately doesn't feel right. But I gotta believe some folks over there would generally have a legit order of this nature, so I think it's worth checking out (carefully) to see what's up. I would certainly make sure the check clears first before I shipped anything though!

 

Scott

[Rob123]

Thanks guys for all your feedback so far, just one think 'TAPAKAH' how on earth can you tell this is a scam just by reading my post??

 

Mark

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tapakah may be a little blunt but I personally think he's on the money.

In my former life (details ommited), I heard horror stories of customers getting scammed.

 

IMO, the greatest source of chargebacks is from overseas companies that may have lax laws regarding fraudent activity against corporations and cybercrime in general. In addition, online electronics vendors are often hit with chargebacks.

 

One more tip: Try to determine the IP address of the original of the message from your logs. (You said he used the contact_us page) If he used a proxy, don't even bother replying.

 

Just my 2 1/2 cents,

Robert

 

edit: Former employment deleted

[♥yesudo]

proceed VERY cautiously.

[Guest]

gambia comes to mind fora reason . . new company is another . .do u know where gambia is? did they give you bank references? send em an email back if you dont believe it is a scam (IMHO it is a total 100% scam) check with your merchant account and see if they will accept credit cards from gambia. odds are they do not . . .

[Sincraft]

1st thing we need to ask is, do you normally sell wholesale. Second thing you need to find out, is how he found your website. DO you advertsise that you sell these products wholesale.

Third, does Matthew sound like a name used in GAMBIA??hehe. Just what hit me as odd.

Fourth - Do a cost benefit anaylsis of this. How much would this hurt you? How much would it help?

 

If I were you, I would get the money in GOLD before I shipped a thing! And, then I would send a person with the package to verify that the person has taken receipt of the product!

 

Also. Remember. The bigger scams out there, never start out with the first transaction. They build your trust over time, them BAM they hit you hard for a big one.

 

S

[Guest]

The part that struck me was

including the freight charge by air to my location

They are obviously not worried about price or they would have asked for a different shipping quote. Either The Gambia is richer than I thought or it is a scam.

[billybrag]

if thats not a scam i will happily eat my own foot.

 

seriously stay away

[mes]

Had a couple of similar scams, he will never produce payment. Might send a cheque that will just bounce once you have sent out the product or somthin.

 

mes

[Arcadiauk]

The managing directory of the company I work for fell for this even after I told him it was a scam.

 

We had a Nigerian who wanted to buy an embroidery machine from us and sent us a credit card deposit for ?4000. He then requested that out of that money could we purchase 4 mobile telephones because they are difficult to get hold of in Nigeria. Our company duly did this and within 2 weeks of them receiving the telephones they withdrew their ?4000 credit card payment. So they got the telephones for free and we were ?800 down.

 

He has now learned his lesson and luckily we only lost ?800, I have heard of other people losing thousands.

 

Derek

[ChrisW123]

Just give the guy a GOOD bid on the items he wants. Then if they accept, state that full payment (plus shipping) is required in advance. If they don't like it, forget them. If they accept, you've made a large, profitable sale. :)

[Guest]

Phone Chargers Systems.I hereby request quotation for the following:

will probably turns to

 

Phone Chargers Systems.I hereby request free samples of the following:

 

and eventually

 

Phone Chargers Systems.I hereby request a very big shipment in advance:

 

Yes, proceed very cautiously. LOL

[Guest]

Hi Guys,

 

I have just received this email through the contact_us form in my store and would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Thanks

 

Mark :-"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

SCAM. I get these about once a month. Other types of products of course but I get these. Don't even bother responding as they will continue to harrass you.... put it in the trash and move on....

 

B)

[Guest]

Definitely a scam. I read an article about these a month or so ago.

Yes, they'll probably pay.

Yes, it'll be a stolen credit card or a check that bounces.

 

They often want to buy cell phones, or parts for cell phones, that can easily be cloned and used illegally.

 

They want fast, expensive shipping, so that they get the products in their hands before you find out that the payment is bogus.

 

I've read several folks' stories that have a bit of fun with international scammers - - if they think you believe them, they're often willing to do all kinds of crazy stuff.

 

Tell him you'll sell them to him as soon as he sends you verified funds, and that you'll have to hold the funds for 2 months to make sure that they clear. Tell him that your state law requires you to only do sell wholesale to businesses that have licenses that say "It's ok to sell to me wholesale" stamped on them with an official seal. He'll probably produce a license that says just that. Tell him that it has to be on paper with a blue border, so you know it's official. Since you can't tell the colors via fax, ask him to kindly write down the color of the border next to it so that you can be sure of the color.

 

Let's see . . .

 

Oh! You can sell to him, but that you have to do the 200 pieces in one order each - - ask him to email you a purchase order for each item.

 

Or, you can ask him to submit the funds to a US bank, but that since you're Japanese, and don't trust US banks, that he has to send the funds in Japanese Yen. To a US Bank. From Gambia. In small bills (Since all of the bills are small over there, that shouldn't be a problem, really).

 

What else . . .

 

Ah! Tell him, in perfect English, that you don't understand English. Insist that he communicate with you in German. High German. Or Swiss-German.

 

No reason not to get a little entertainment out of the deal. :)

 

-jared

[Guest]

Credit cards? Checks?

 

Listen, I don't even own an osCommerce site (*GASP*, didn't know that did you?) but my main business is in B2B as I'm a manufacturer and cater to international business.

 

Ask him to provide a 100% payment remission via bank-to-bank transfer (as is customary with B2B orders) and you'll provide shipment directoy F.O.B.

 

If he ponies up and you get the payment ship the material. There is no way he can scam you with a bank transfer of CASH MONEY. If he wants to use a credit card or check send his email address to the spam box.

 

Bobby

[Guest]

Hi,

 

I had something similar, but from Nigeria. I wanted about ?3000 of Portuguese products, sauces, ? Got back to him and gave him the price, he then emailed me his credit card details with expire date, when I told that he had to pay via my site and not to email me the card details because it was dangerous he step back

I would be very careful, there is people around that live from well organised scams and it your business at stake, better to have less than none!

 

Best luck

Hugo

[Guest]

I think I have just heard the most surprising thing ever on these boards. Chemo..you don't own an oscommerce site? WOW, then my thanks for all you have contributed!

 

RW

 

Credit cards?  Checks?

 

Listen, I don't even own an osCommerce site (*GASP*, didn't know that did you?) but my main business is in B2B as I'm a manufacturer and cater to international business.

 

Ask him to provide a 100% payment remission via bank-to-bank transfer (as is customary with B2B orders) and you'll provide shipment directoy F.O.B.

 

If he ponies up and you get the payment ship the material.  There is no way he can scam you with a bank transfer of CASH MONEY.  If he wants to use a credit card or check send his email address to the spam box.

 

Bobby

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Guest]

...

Chemo..you don't own an oscommerce site?

...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I'm not an osCommerce store owner but I play one on the internet :) In all seriousness, coding is a passion for me. Some play sports and others find alternate methods of testing their limits...I choose to test my abilities with coding osC contributions.

 

Bobby

[Webwarrior]

Hi Guys,

 

I have just received this email through the contact_us form in my store and would love to hear your thoughts about it.

Thanks

 

Mark :-"

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi, I think i can help you here, I had a very similar email, only i sell greeting cards mine said "200 pcs greeting cards - occasion, any" oh, and a request for mobile phones, which i don't sell! Totally bizarre, a few days later i had a follow up email, which i also ignored, then didn't hear anymore, i would say definitely a scam. Please be careful.

[Flyer5]

I've been dealing with credit sales for over 20 years now, including running an anti fraud department for a large corporate company. If this isn't fraud I'll happily eat BillyBrags other foot, after he has eaten the first one. (earlier post for those who missed it)

 

Heres what i would do - ask him to transfer ?100 into your bank account from his company account, then simply ignore him. Keep his ?100 for pestering you in the first place and chalk it up as getting one over on the baddies...

 

Or am i being too cynical?

 

 

F5