Scam Alert

[Morris Dovey]

Person: jim walker Business: J. Best Co. Lmt Amesh Shipping

Sends e-mail wanting to purchase merchandise - in my case it was an unspecified number of tilt-top shop carts (see at link in sig) - with payment by credit card with shipment to Sweden.

I responded to the initial query with the suggestion that he could have the carts produced in Sweden for less than the cost of shipping from my location - and offered to provide contact info for a Swedish shop that I knew would do a first class job for a reasonable price.

The response was strange enough that I did web searches on both the person and the business .

What I found was that both names have been used to order merchandise with MasterCard payment, and a requirement was made to use "Amesh Shipping". Amesh then required an (up front) shipping payment.

The MasterCard payment used a stolen/bogus card number and the transaction would be reversed (removing the deposited funds from the merchant account), and there would be no means of recovering the payment (typically $2000-3000) made to Amesh Shipping.

I went to my server log to look at hits to the web page where the carts are shown (they aren't offered for sale) and /think/ I know where the scammer is viewing the page from. FYI, here's the best I could find:

Suspected Location: Accra, Ghana Suspected Server ref: adsl25164.4u.com.gh

I haven't ever mentioned these carts to anyone except here on the wreck, so it seems appropriate to post a warning here (just in case).

[sweet sawdust]

to be shipped to England. Same basic story, only this was a broker in New York City that was handling the deal. I googled the address and called it only to find that they had never heard of the person. It always pays to do a basic background check on any order that is the least bit unusual. They wanted me to ship by their shipper and when I informed them that I could ship for less then 1/4 their cost they agreed to the lower shipping cost but wanted 2 high end laptops included in the shipment, a sure redflag of a scam.

[EXT]

Our local papers have been reporting similar scams being used on local florists, where they are looking for very large orders of flowers to be shipped by their shipping company. One florist had a large credit card payment charged back to him even though the credit card company had authorized the charge.

[Joe AutoDrill]

We require payment by bank transfer for any international sales... But I suppose that wouldn't stop someone from doing the same to a USA address.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. [phone]

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: Spindle Drills: Site:

[sweet sawdust]

"Joe AutoDrill" wrote in message news:Nibul.38787$ [e-mail]...

I think that is part of the problem, One, the orders are small, in my case under $2,000, before shipping. Two, the billing address is in the US but the shipping address is overseas. Two small for a bank transfer to be common since it is with small businesses, who are unfamiliar with the bank transfer procedure. The perpetrators are out of country and law enforcement doesn't want to get involved. The small business thinks it is dealing with someone in country so they are safe. Most of the small crafters are poor businessmen, since their interest is in the craft not in the business side of the operation. This makes them very easy to scam, A wire transfer or a little background check is the way it should be done, but most crafters are too trusting to bother with that or learn about it. In the group of crafters I hang out with we have quite a collection of bogus certified checks, overseas orders paid for with bad credit cards and the like. Nobody has been burned yet but is has been close a couple of times and a lot of time has been spent on bogus orders until they are found to be scams. Unlike companies that sell to companies most crafters sell to individuals who may or maynot have a verifiable business location, this makes it harder to check up on. If they are in country it is not so bad as you recieve some protection from various laws, and can check with local people in the buyers area to confirm that they are legit but out of country buyers are a real pain in the neck to check at times. Enough rambeling for now.

[Morris Dovey]

My learning experience was in the other direction, but it covers the bases reasonably well...

I needed to order materials from a Japanese company and their sales guy told me I needed to do a bank transfer before they'd ship. I hustled to my bank (didn't even turn the computer off) and told 'em I needed to do a transfer of $xxxx to a company in Tokyo and filled out a short form (no more complicated than writing a check). The bank clerk wished me a good day and I drove straight home (10-minute trip).

When I got home there was an e-mail in my in box thanking me for my payment and assuring me that my stuff would ship out of Taipei (where the factory was) that afternoon.

There really isn't much to it.

[Joe AutoDrill]

Agreed. When I receive an order from overseas, I require the bank tranfer and send out very clear, step by step instructions. If the other end simplt prints the instructions and brings them to the bank (and the bankers read English), then the instructions cover all the bases and then some...

The only difficulty I have is getting them to cover the wire transfer fees that I make *them* pay. About 60% of the time, my payment comes in anywhere from $10 to $40 short... But on a $xxxx order, that's acceptable to me since I'd pay the same thing in credit card fees here in the US if someone paid with V/MC, etc.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. [phone]

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: Spindle Drills: Site:

[Morris Dovey]

Y'know, I've been sitting here experiencing serious deja vu. I spent more than two months trying to buy those materials from a US supplier (none of whom would reply to voice or e-mails) before I widened my search beyond our borders. I can't begin to describe how frustrating that was. Three e-mail exchanges with a gentleman in Tokyo, and a ten minute trip to the bank brought my materials to central Iowa in just three days.

For a week now now I've been trying to get my hands on a ball valve with metal seats for a high-temperature solar engine, and I haven't been able to get a human to talk to me. The current frustrator is an outfit up in Milford, Michigan (Yes I do understand that the folks in Michigan are so up to their eyeballs in work that it's probably not worth their time to respond to /new/ customers - not).

Methinks it's time to stop screwing around and go global - again. :(

[Lee Michaels]

"Morris Dovey" wrote

I know the feeling. I have ordered items from New Zealand and China because I could not get them in the US. Shipping was high, but they had items in stock and would talk to me.

Maybe Obama should put in his economic "stimulus" bill something about US companies actually answering their phone/e-mail.

[J. Clarke]

American business is often its own worst enemy.

[Robatoy]

Our little Snowflake, (15) wanted some UG winter boots. So Angela looked around for her and all the UG's were made in China and stupid money. On-line, we found the original UG's, in Australia, for less money, shipping included and had them in three days. THREE days from Oz. I can buy electronic parts in Denmark and have them over-night if I want to pay extra, three days if I don't. Lee Valley 'gets it'.

What I would like to see, if I place an order, and they take one of the major credit cards, that they'd give me a 3.5% discount if I send them a cheque ahead of their shipping the goods. Same with a LOC, give me a discount.

[Morris Dovey]

Yuppers (We've noticed)

I'm willing to do that - order from me! :-)

Something you might find interesting is that in six years of business, I've /never/ had a customer check bounce. That's had me scratching my head a bit...

[Morris Dovey]

And yet, I have good memories of Philly and northern NJ when no matter what I needed, someone had an uncle who could not only supply it, but supply it (or make it) for less than I'd likely find it anywhere else.

I'll admit that I did turn down an offer to supply me with a (new) 1403 for only $2500 - with considerable regret on my part. :)

[-MIKE-]

Yes, but it also came with the stipulation that, "Someday, and that day may never come, I'll call upon you to do a service for me."

[Morris Dovey]

I hear you - and fortunately the good deals I got came from people for whom I'd either already done a (legitimate) software-related favor or were fellow hams "getting even" for help I'd given freely.

The questionable offers tended to scare the hell out of me... ...although I admit to being tempted at one point during my divorce.

[Morris Dovey]

He's baaack! :)

In this morning's mail:

" My name is James and i am a self own business person,I contact to make a order of Solar Panel and many more ,So i will like to know if you do sale Solar Panel ?If yes then get back to me with your models and price list so that i can make my selection and get back to you with the quantity that i may need including your major credit card that you accept ,name and contact number.Try as much as you can to get back to me asap .Thank You and i will be looking forward to your urgent respond.

James Story"

Headers indicate a server in North Accra, Ghana.

[Larry Blanchard]

Ya'know, if you had the time and energy to waste you could keep this guy dangling for quite some time. I've seen it done for the Nigerian prisoner scam and it was hilarious.

[Lee Michaels]

Reminds me of all that overseas pharmacy scams. Would you really want to trust your health to somebody who can't spell?

[Morris Dovey]

I learned very early in life that playing with turds makes your hands smell bad. :)

[Charlie Self]

one. We've been getting vehicle warranty phone calls at a fantastic rate, sometimes three or more a day. I finally punched "1" a couple of days ago. Some idiot comes on with "Warranty Sales Department, how can I help you." A native English speaker, at that! Not Limey, or Aussie or SingSong. So I said, "Sure. Explain to me why you clowns keep calling us when we're on the 'do not call" list." He hung up immediately. I should have strung him out a bit. Hell, I've got a '98 Chev S10 pick-up and an '00 Dodge Stratus that could USE some warranty work.

We got a check for $3,850 the other day, with a request that we deposit it, send $1,350 as a payment, so we could claim our xxx bucks winning prize. I've got that here to go to the post office when I get time. It's from a Canadian address.

I always wonder about those penis lengtheners in spam, too. Do they send a brick and a piece of string when you pay? Or nothing?