Could this be hoax?

[keoga]

Hello everybodu, need some advice! I wonder if this email is HOAX?

 

take a look!

 

dear sales,

 

my name is: [Tonny Chen]

 

i would ask to you that i'm very interesting to make business with you. and i am looking for :

 

a. xxxxx

  Quantity : 40

b. xxxxxx

  Quantity : 40

c. xxxxxxx

  Quantity : 2

 

by the way..

 

1. could you sent out the products to Singapore?

2. do you accept credit card payment via email

  (Mastercard or VISA or AMEX)?

3. [FedEx or TNT Express] is my priority shipping method?

 

i need your confirmation ASAP.

please advise me

 

best regards

 

Tonny Chen

 

Seems suspicious to me, is it safe to accept a paymen via Paypal from this guy?

 

Or is he trying to fool me?

 

 

Thanks for advice!

[Arcadiauk]

Sounds like a Scam to me, if they were really serious about buying from you why didn't they just run the order through the shop like everyone else would?

 

Derek

[GraphicsGuy]

I get these all the time, although usually a little more sophisticated. They are as bogus as a 3 dollar bill.

 

It is a classic scam. Key identifying points:

 

- High quantiites from a foreign customer that has never done business with you before.

 

- Always indicate the most expensive shipping options (usually FedEx International Overnight)

 

- Willing to send credit card information via email.

 

Short of requiring prepayment in cash before it will ship, I don't know that there is a safe way to do business with a contact like this.

 

If you accept a credit card from them by any means, it can chargeback weeks after your merchandise and shipping expense are long gone.

 

If you accept a check, clearing of funds on international checks and money orders can take over a month and can even be reversed after it has cleared.

[bglkk]

Agreed, scam. Another tip off is that this is a volume purchase, and he didn't even ask for a discount. No self-respecting legitimate Singapore businessman would let that opportunity pass... :) Explain to him that your policy on volume orders is to request payment via bank transfer--that's a perfectly commonplace practice. If you never hear from the guy again you'll have confirmation of your suspicions...

[John Holmes]

I get that too. WTF are they trying to do, just stock up on anything they can? I mean I was asked to ship 50 ignition coils over there.

[keoga]

Hey,

 

Great thanks for all the answers! Will try the bank transfer option :-)

 

"Explain to him that your policy on volume orders is to request payment via bank transfer--that's a perfectly commonplace practice. If you never hear from the guy again you'll have confirmation of your suspicions... "

[MarcS]

Like all emails from wealthy Nigerian Princes with billions in oil money, needing a safe and honest broker to transfer funds internationaly, confine it to the bin.

 

 

 

Mark

[Flyer5]

Ok, this is purely for interest as I have already made a decision on this one but read on....

This was a mail sent from the contact us page..

 

Hi, a friend of mine wants to buy the Yamaha PSR 3000. He is coming to see me on Monday (7th February). Two questions please; Can he pay on-line with a credit card? And if he pays on Monday with his credit card, how long would delivery be? (He is going on holiday the following week but I could always take delivery if it was longer)

Thanks,

 

( I should point out - his friend lives abroad.)

 

 

So, based on that content, would you decide this was prepping you for a fraudulent transaction?

 

F5

[Guest]

some of these are not worth even answering, as it is more a waste of time. so if a cc is declined via the store payment method, dont even think of manually keying that card in your virtual terminal, there are too many cc's stolen daily

[GraphicsGuy]

The following example of a scam order request that I received is one of my favorites. I think they hit on just about every red flag available except one (quantity was reasonable, not excessive).

 

 

Dear Sir/ma,

My name is Kenneth Cole ,i reside in the U.S and i am The Manager of Jarminice Sports Shop i do distribute sports accessories overseas and i recieved an order from one of my customer's in Nigeria. And which i am out of stock of the product they ask for, so please i will like you to help me get this sports accessories and give me the total cost so that i can pay it up including the shipment via UPS Next Day Air. And I will be paying with my credit card and i will also supply you with the shipping details in nigeria.

 

1. FootBall Jerseys  ( Brazil Jersey )

2. FootBall Jerseys  ( France Jersey )

3. FootBall Jerseys  ( United State Jersey )

 

Qty: 5 pieces respectively with discount.

With Best Regards.

Kenneth Cole

 

Let's see:

1.) The person's name just happens to be that of a high end fashion store, but the business name given doesn't even show up in Google.

2.) Forged email header (poorly done at that).

3.) Different billing and shipping addresses.

4.) Shipment by most expensive method.

5.) Payment by a U.S. credit card but shipping to Nigeria (at least he didn't mention paying using money transfered from his martyred father's bank account).

6.) Asking for a product not even on my site

 

 

It was on a weekend so I decided to have a little fun. I responded back that we might be able to help them out. But that we were out of French Team Jerseys, would one from China be OK. I got a reply back from a different name using a different forged email header. They were appreciative and said Chinese Jerseys would do fine. Then they mentioned that the credit card was actually their "business partner's".

 

To make a long story short, I kept the email volley going back and forth a few times. In the last one I thanked them for participating in an Interpol investigation into Internet credit card fraud and told them that we would be contacting them soon. Oddly I never heard from them again! :lol:

[TCwho]

To make a long story short, I kept the email volley going back and forth a few times. In the last one I thanked them for participating in an Interpol investigation into Internet credit card fraud and told them that we would be contacting them soon. Oddly I never heard from them again!

 

 

!!!!! Oh that was good man! LOL

[LouVellie]

Hey,

 

Great thanks for all the answers! Will try the bank transfer option :-)

 

"Explain to him that your policy on volume orders is to request payment via bank transfer--that's a perfectly commonplace practice. If you never hear from the guy again you'll have confirmation of your suspicions... "

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah that sounds like the best way to do that. I dont think any other way will be safe. I have had a few customers try that against me. They always want you to hurry and ship it to them. "I need it immediately, Its very important that they get here before mm/dd/yyyy!" CRAZY! I wouldnt even waste time giving this guy my bank info. He may try something with that as far as getting checks and stuff made with your routing number and stuff. If he is willing to try this what makes you think he wont try something else? These fools are always trying to scam.

[LouVellie]

Like all emails from wealthy Nigerian Princes with billions in oil money, needing a safe and honest broker to transfer funds internationaly, confine it to the bin.

Mark

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

now thats funny I agree!!!

[ArtRat]

If you want to play with them really, why not also get the stolen card numbers shut down too, so innocent people don't get bad credit?

 

Tell them sure, email me the number we'll work something out. You know its stolen. Contact the cc company. Once they verify it's bogus they can put a freeze on it.

 

You may then contact the crook again and tell them it failed, could they send you another number? They will. Chances are they will have many numbers usually very close to the one they first gave. Keep the process rolling until you get a bunch of thier stolen numbers frozen and invalid.

 

Then you may tell them thanks for playing the interpol game for real- because they did and now have a bunch of worthless numbers to prove it. That'll really ruffle their feathers and may indeed get them tracked and caught. Credit card companies spend huge amounts of resources on stopping this fraud. They will investigate.

[teebee]

Thanks, for posting this info, now I know I am not the only one getting these emails almost daily asking for high end dollar products thats not even on my site.

I had a freind that had an ecommerce site and fell for one of these from Nigeria. Ordered $4500.00 worth of Blank Bulk VHS Tapes plus several hundred dollars in shipping cost, (shipped a skid by boat). After he told me he landed this large order I told him to give it a couple of months it would charge back to his account. Sure enough he got the charge back and nothing he could do to get the money nor the product back. After all this the so called customer tried to pull it off again, seller refused the sell with credit card, buyer offered to fly to the US with us cash to purchase the same amount of product, however after his offer he never showed up.

Also never even offer to do a bank transfer, THEY CAN clean you out once this is done. This is one option they are looking for. My wife worked in a bank for many years. She said they have seen this done too many times. Remember most of the time when the bank transfer is done they have your bank account #.

The best thing to do is NEVER sell to these people, there is NO safe way to make a transaction with them. Remember the cash method is still fradulent money.

Theres needs to be away to stop this before to many innocent people get screwed.

[keoga]

*Hehe I loved this option!

 

 

To make a long story short, I kept the email volley going back and forth a few times. In the last one I thanked them for participating in an Interpol investigation into Internet credit card fraud and told them that we would be contacting them soon. Oddly I never heard from them again!

 

:D

[bglkk]

Also never even offer to do a bank transfer, THEY CAN clean you out once this is done. This is one option they are looking for. My wife worked in a bank for many years. She said they have seen this done too many times. Remember most of the time when the bank transfer is done they have your bank account #.

The best thing to do is NEVER sell to these people, there is NO safe way to make a transaction with them. Remember the cash method is still fradulent money.

Theres needs to be away to stop this before to many innocent people get screwed.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

It is not our experience that giving bank routing info provides an avenue to clean out the transfer recipient, and we've been doing B2B in Asia for years. But I suppose no method of business is 100% safe. Just curious--can you give details on how fraudsters can clean out the recipient of a bank transfer? We've always found that the sender is at far greater risk than the recipient, and the transaction cost and paperwork tends to weed out the non-legitimate customers. Cheers.

[Guest]

Agreed, scam. Another tip off is that this is a volume purchase, and he didn't even ask for a discount. No self-respecting legitimate Singapore businessman would let that opportunity pass... :) Explain to him that your policy on volume orders is to request payment via bank transfer--that's a perfectly commonplace practice. If you never hear from the guy again you'll have confirmation of your suspicions...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

What would you say if the buyer was allegedly purchasing 300 of the same $1.50USD item, in several different designs, to use as a fundraiser in the UK? I got an enquiry of this sort and was pretty psyched until I read this thread :cry: :'(

 

I emailed them back, but haven't received a response yet (only been a few days). What do you guys think?

[bglkk]

It could still be on the up-and-up, but you need to consider all the factors of the order: payment method, shipping method, shipping address compared with billing address, actual IP number where the order was placed, whether the inquiry came from a free email address...

 

Also the unit price is quite low--not as risky for you...fraudsters often look for bigger ticket items.

[GraphicsGuy]

Another pathetic example of a scam/hoax:

 

Dear sir,

 

I would like two photo mugs to be delivered in the following address.

Dr Dennis

Resident medical officer

Palm beach Resort

Republic of maldives

 

Kindly let me know the cost of sending the mugs to this country

 

my e-mail address is [email protected]

 

we dont have credit cards so kindly let me have your bank account number for me to send you a telegraphic transfer.

 

kindly let me have your website address

dr dennis

 

Fraud indicators:

> Free UK email address and came from a Hong Kong IP

> Suspicious shipping address (appears to be incomplete)

> A doctor at a resort doesn't have a credit card?

> Asking for a bank account number to do a transfer for a tiny order.

> Wants the website address even though they were on it to use the contact form.

[John Holmes]

To make a long story short, I kept the email volley going back and forth a few times.  In the last one I thanked them for participating in an Interpol investigation into Internet credit card fraud and told them that we would be contacting them soon.  Oddly I never heard from them again!  :lol:

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

1. Don't f**k with idiots like thesek if you piss them off, they will do what they can to hurt your business.

 

2. Follow Rule #1.

 

3. Just ignore the e-mail.

[GraphicsGuy]

1.  Don't f**k with idiots like thesek if you piss them off, they will do what they can to hurt your business.

 

2.  Follow Rule #1.

 

3.  Just ignore the e-mail.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You are right. You never know when they might be a hacker/cracker or know one.

 

Nothing ever came of this incident, but it can.

 

On the other hand if it caused them to be nervous, even for a moment, good.

[deanot]

Another pathetic example of a scam/hoax:

Fraud indicators:

> Free UK email address and came from a Hong Kong IP

> Suspicious shipping address (appears to be incomplete)

> A doctor at a resort doesn't have a credit card?

> Asking for a bank account number to do a transfer for a tiny order.

> Wants the website address even though they were on it to use the contact form.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

OMG, are these people really this stupid?

[Wendy James]

yes, yes they are... sadder thing is people still fall for this and the million of other scams being run on ecommerce sites and through email.

[Jumping Rabbit]

If you are unsure, do not repaly and aspecially do not give out your bank account information.

 

If you feel you have to replay, ask them to pay you through Western Union Money Transfer... :D