Forum Moderators: buckworks
We had a person place an order ($350). A month later they placed another order ($350) and then did this a third time .. all of this was over a period of about 4 months.
Now, 4 months later the first order is disputed via a chargeback. The dispute was "did not receive goods". We have a signed fedex delivery receipts. The gotcha for us is the bill to/ship to was different addresses. We disputed back showing the signature. The customer comes back with they did not know this person. So we had fedex look into it and the persons name who signed is the owner of the ship to address.
While this dispute is in place, this same person places another order with us for $350. We void this transaction and email saying we are unable to take the order due to chargebacks on previous orders. This person comes back 3 hours later and attempts another order with a different name. The name they used this time is the owner of the property of the ship to (the one who they claimed the did not know). This transaction failed due to AVS. They attempted about 7 different credit cards trying to change the bill to address in an effort to fool us all failing due to AVS.
We blocked this persons IP and documented it all. We contacted merchant provider to let them know we feel they are attempting fraud. The banks bottom line is/was ... we lose chargeback due to shipping to address other than billing address. Ok, I get that but we do that all the time. Our products are VERY low fraud items and they lend themselves to needing shipped to other places. We were told that under no circumstance can we ship to other than bill to address.
Ok, so we lost. Is it possible to send this person a letter stating that we have all their attempts documented, that it is clearly fraudulent and we will send it to collections and/or contact the local law enforcement?
We can eat this cost, but its the principle. I am certain this person is frauding all over the web and they need stopped.
What we have for documentation.
1. All orders were from same IP
2. All successful orders were billed to same address and shipped to same address (different address than billing).
3. The signature of delivery was all the same person, owner of Ship To property.
4. IP from successful orders documented in multiple attempts of placing orders after the initial chargebacks. Some attempts using the name of original ship to property.
5. Many credit card transactions failing due to AVS.
Thanks for any advice.
I have found this to be the quickest way in such cases.
Don't expect to get your money back though but if you do something this guy can be out of business in no time. If you don't act everybody here could be his next victim. So do not think this is unimportant or the police has better things to do. This is not the case.
Have you looked up the address these packages are going to?
Different credit card each time, all had the same bill to name and address (this is for all the successful transactions).
We had Fedex investigate the destination address, which was always the same for the successful transactions. The person who signed for the packages was the owner of the property.
Looks like you have some bad orders and will most likely get hit couple more times on chargebacks.
I would right now get those numbers looked up get the issuing bank phone numbers from your merchant account area and see if the address matches the card bet your gonna find out they are bad cards as well.
Get the police involved file a criminal charge against the proterty owner and or tenant to get them before they flee.
or it could be some properity owner that is madly in love with some internet queen and he thinks he is doing a legit business, seen this very thing on TV a couple weeks ago.
As for the property owner. The fedex operations manager in that zone checked it out and the person that signed for the delivery is the owner of the property based on county records. At least the signature they signed was the owner of the property.
This sounds like the classic ship to a drop off address, where they are then sent on to someplace in Nigeria or the like. Sometimes the receiver of the packages (if they are really stupid) are not even aware they are involved in a fraud scheme.
Especially in rural areas I have found the police to investigate rather quickly, sometimes even sending by a patrol car the very same day to check out the address.
This sounds like the classic ship to a drop off address
We were told that under no circumstance can we ship to other than bill to address.
I think you should appeal the merchant's 'ruling'. At least try..then find a new merchant!
I just bought my mother in law a gift from a website. She lives at a different address. I would be annoyed if the online store said nope we cant ship it to her. They'd lose business.
Not sure about the point in sending the man a letter, unless you want to ask for your money?
Do you by chance ask customers for their phone number?
Well if there is one good thing.. your loss is tax deductible - woohoo, I know! =p
