anna5858 Posted February 6, 2009 Posted February 6, 2009 I've had my online business for 1.5 years, and this is the 1st problem I've had. On Tuesday, I received an order to be sent to Vietnam ($250 worth of Perfume), with a US billing address. I thought it was weird, but I was also happy to get an order. I didn't think about it too much. Well, stupid me, I had 2 more large orders on Thursday, one going to Vietnam, and the other going to California. Both with different billing addresses. I looked into my Authorize.net account, and noticed that each order tried to go through 5 times each, using a different credit card each time.... Ugghh... I'm so frustrated. I voided out the 2 thursday orders, but i had already sent the order to Vietnam on Tuesday, via USPS, priority mail with tracking. The post office told me there was nothing I could do concerning this matter. I've lost so much money over the last 2 months from declined orders (appears this has been going on for months). Why are they targeting me? The perfume I carry is very specialized and unknown. Why would they want it? I don't understand. What should I do? I've been thinking about shutting my online cart down, because I don't sell that much, and this just made it worse. However, I will almost certainly receive a chargeback, and then what???? I'm out $250 worth of products. Not to mention, business is REALLY slow. Should I call the police? If the product is delivered with proof, will I still receive a chargeback? If people only had the option of paying via Paypal, would that solve the problem? Is it possible that they have to have the same billing & shipping address for the order to go through? Is there a contribution for this? Any advice will help. Oh, and my heat is not working, to add to my dilemma :blink:
krnl Posted February 6, 2009 Posted February 6, 2009 They want it because it's FREE! They're targeting you because they target everyone! You should contact authorize.net and tell them about the problem. Call your merchant account provider as well. Set your authorize.net account to only accept orders with billing zip matching the billing zip that's provided. Don't be in such a hurry to fill an order - sometimes, it's worth making a phone call to the customer if the shipping address differs from the billing address and you're unsure about it. Good luck! and finally - burn something...that will make it warmer in there :)
Desertsky Posted February 6, 2009 Posted February 6, 2009 I've had my online business for 1.5 years, and this is the 1st problem I've had. On Tuesday, I received an order to be sent to Vietnam ($250 worth of Perfume), with a US billing address. I thought it was weird, but I was also happy to get an order. I didn't think about it too much. Well, stupid me, I had 2 more large orders on Thursday, one going to Vietnam, and the other going to California. Both with different billing addresses. I looked into my Authorize.net account, and noticed that each order tried to go through 5 times each, using a different credit card each time.... Ugghh... I'm so frustrated. I voided out the 2 thursday orders, but i had already sent the order to Vietnam on Tuesday, via USPS, priority mail with tracking. The post office told me there was nothing I could do concerning this matter. I've lost so much money over the last 2 months from declined orders (appears this has been going on for months). Why are they targeting me? The perfume I carry is very specialized and unknown. Why would they want it? I don't understand. What should I do? I've been thinking about shutting my online cart down, because I don't sell that much, and this just made it worse. However, I will almost certainly receive a chargeback, and then what???? I'm out $250 worth of products. Not to mention, business is REALLY slow. Should I call the police? If the product is delivered with proof, will I still receive a chargeback? If people only had the option of paying via Paypal, would that solve the problem? Is it possible that they have to have the same billing & shipping address for the order to go through? Is there a contribution for this? Any advice will help. Oh, and my heat is not working, to add to my dilemma :blink: I have had people in Indonesia try that as well. My card processor held the approval and contacted me with a warning. They said beware of larger than normal orders of the same product to one overseas address and to call and have them do a Code 10 verification. Also, I don't ship to an address that is not the billing address unless I know the customer, or I call to verify the cardholder. You will be on the hook for the chargeback because I would bet that your agreement says you have to ship to the billing address. I think Authorize.net should have aborted the order after a couple of attempts. Certainly contact your local police and report the incident.
NodsDorf Posted February 6, 2009 Posted February 6, 2009 I've had my online business for 1.5 years, and this is the 1st problem I've had. On Tuesday, I received an order to be sent to Vietnam ($250 worth of Perfume), with a US billing address. I thought it was weird, but I was also happy to get an order. I didn't think about it too much. Well, stupid me, I had 2 more large orders on Thursday, one going to Vietnam, and the other going to California. Both with different billing addresses. I looked into my Authorize.net account, and noticed that each order tried to go through 5 times each, using a different credit card each time.... Ugghh... I'm so frustrated. I voided out the 2 thursday orders, but i had already sent the order to Vietnam on Tuesday, via USPS, priority mail with tracking. The post office told me there was nothing I could do concerning this matter. I've lost so much money over the last 2 months from declined orders (appears this has been going on for months). Why are they targeting me? The perfume I carry is very specialized and unknown. Why would they want it? I don't understand. What should I do? I've been thinking about shutting my online cart down, because I don't sell that much, and this just made it worse. However, I will almost certainly receive a chargeback, and then what???? I'm out $250 worth of products. Not to mention, business is REALLY slow. Should I call the police? If the product is delivered with proof, will I still receive a chargeback? If people only had the option of paying via Paypal, would that solve the problem? Is it possible that they have to have the same billing & shipping address for the order to go through? Is there a contribution for this? Any advice will help. Oh, and my heat is not working, to add to my dilemma :blink: If you were take take paypal and ship to verified PayPal addresses you would be covered. However most people who don't live in US, Canada don't have verified addresses anyway. Your frustration is a typical reason most business stop. And its a shame. A few asshats can destroy a business. In my shop we are more of a target because we deal with digital transfers. Things people can get instantly and the people are much harder to find and prosecute. So we have taken security and identifying fraud very serious. Here are some things you can do that don't cost much. Log IP address on orders contribution: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2138 -When you receive an order it also logs the IP used to place the order. There are tons of free websites you can use to find out where that IP is from. If the IP does not match the billing info deny it. MaxMind Fraud Detection: contribution: http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/2115 - This service is SUPER helpful. It runs the the customer information against bank info, phone info, ip info and gives you a risk score. Here is an example of an order we denied. -The service cost us $5.00 a month I believe for up to 2500 queries. More then we have ever used even on super busy months like during new releases. -It also helps you identify those using Proxy IPs which is a high indicator of somebody trying to fool you. Check your authorize.net orders. We have found a scammer will try and run 2 or more different credit cards to get an order through. That is because they often steal them in batches. If one is declined they try the next, usually under the same customer name and keep trying to they exhausted their list or an order gets through. If you see multiple different credit cards used by the same account. Deny it. Check the Phone Number, whitepages.com has a free reverse phone lookup, or you can go with http://www.reversephonedetective.com who charges a 1 time flat fee of I think $40. We've used this company for 3 years and they have ad free searches and consistently updated database. Another thing we do is Call New Customers. If they never purchased from us before we call them. We tell them up front this is going to happen and most other companies in my type of sales do the same. We simply let them know that because this is their first order with us we just need to verify the account and make sure the information on file is correct, and then offer them the opportunity to ask us questions. This is great if you can take the time to do it. Most people thank us for the call. At times we are in the unfortunate position of telling a person that their credit card was used on our site. Then give them the info used to make the purchase and tell them to call their credit card company immediately to cancel the card. A scammer who continually trys to buy from you and finds after every attempt the card they worked to steal is no good after buying from you, will often not come back to you. Lastly don't be afraid to Deny an order. If something don't look right, just deny the order. Its much better to lose the profit on a single order then it is to lose the value of the order + fees and shipping charges. If its fishy its much cheaper to just say no. Honest customers often will contact you and try and find out why it was denied, at this point you're free to ask them questions about the information you found fishy and judge their response. Good Luck and I hope this helped.
anna5858 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Posted February 7, 2009 Thank you very much for all of your answers, I appreciate your help!
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