UPS to Italy

[Luxoria]

Being new to ecommerce and international shipping, does this situation checkout good or risky?

Today I received an inquiry of the cost to ship an item to Italy by UPS. The cost to send a 3LB package from Virginia to Italy cost $136.58 and the goods value is $64.98.

Now, the person I received the inquiry from runs their own ecommerce store and the IP address from the received message checks out. They want me to use their UPS account for the shipping fee, which UPS said it's OK to do so. The email itself was well constructed as would I except from a experience store owner. The customer gave several payment options they could use; Credit Card or Bank Transfer or Paypal Verified.

So, the only possible red flag is the willingness to purchase an item and pay double the cost of the item in shipping and custom fees. The item is unique, but, IMO the same item should be able to made for them locally by a sign shop.

Any thoughts and/or opinions are welcome.

Thanks

[dpd1]

Yeah, that's a tough one. On one hand, common sense would dictate that people wouldn't ever do something like that, and when people ARE willing to do that, it's often an indication for a scam. Then on the other hand, there's companies that just don't care. I would offer them USPS... Even at Express, it would be much less. See what they say to that. Of course, I guess that wouldn't really prove if they were scamming. It doesn't sound like it's the kind of thing that scammers would typically go for. I would lean towards legit, but who knows.

[Luxoria]

Well everything checkouts, all the emails align up with the shipping information, verified paypal information, and their ecommerce information. The emails are well constructed and professional with absolutely no grammar errors. So, I am going to go for it. It's odd, but worth the risk.

[dpd1]

Probably be OK. I've had companies insist on using their own shipping at crazy rates. Sometimes they just add it on the bill for their client, so they don't care.

[Rugles]

no grammar errors

It is funny that grammer, spelling and phrasing are the biggest tipoff to a fraud.

[Leosghost]

;-)

[WillG]

Italian postal system is one of the worst in the world. Might be they want to make sure they get the item and choose to use there UPS account to make sure of it and if there is a problem they can contact UPS directly with all the account info needed.