Order to Seoul Korea

Red flag? Best way to verify ID?

[akmac]

I've only shipped to Korea once before, and that was to a US expat. I don't think that Korea is a hotbed of fraud, but I'm curious if anyone else here has experience with orders to Korea-positive or negative.

Customer used an amex,, has an APNIC IP, a shipping address in the glass tower and an @samsung.com email address. Looks legit, but it's a $1500 item (not unusual for us) and I want to be sure to do due diligence.

Any helpful experience from a seasoned vet-or a person in Korea who can recommend a non invasive way to verify ID?

Thanks!

[LifeinAsia]

Samsung Engineering Company, Ltd. has (or at least had) an office in the Glass Tower. I'd do a bit more investigation and verify that it's a Korean IP address and not just Asia Pacific.

Where's the billing address?

[akmac]

Thanks for the rapid response LIA. Billing is the same as shipping-but AVS doesn't work there. How do you "dig down" on an IP address? I just do an ARIN WHOIS search and figured that was as much as I could do...

[LifeinAsia]

Several sites will give more information about the IP address. If it's an APNIC address, you can use [wq.apnic.net...] (it seems to lookup at least some non-APNIC IP addresses as well).

[akmac]

Thanks for that-IP is Korean. Any ideas what I could ask a Korean gentleman to send as ID verification without offending him?

[LifeinAsia]

1) Korean registration card, although it's all in Korean.
2) Passport, but there's no guarantee he'd have one.

As an alternative, ask for a copy of the front & back of the card. This would show that he physically has the card (or is very good with PhotoShop). Then try to verify with AMEX that it's not stolen.

[akmac]

I called amex with the full card # and they were of little help, as it's an international card. They said I need to get the phone # from the back of the customer card in order to get a name and address verification. Emailed customer asking for this info-waiting to hear back.

[Lightguy1]

Thats weird. Amex is the own bank, so regardless what number you should call they can assist. In the past I have been able to get them to verify I was shipping to the billing address and also give a yes or no response if there has been unusual activity on the card in the last 30 days. Maybe call back and try to speak to another rep.

[akmac]

It was a Samsung branded amex card. My Korean is less than existent, so calling the number on the back of the card wasn't much help. Anyway, I determined that the order was legit, and now I have a happy customer in Korea.