Overseas customers

[wackal]

How risky is it to accept an order from an overseas (outside US) customer but have the order shipped to a US billing address? I got this request from a customer, but I'm a little worried about the credit card being stolen or this being a scam. He also wants to order a big quantity so that is also making me nervous.

Does this type of thing happen alot? It seems odd that he wouldn't ship the order to the same country he's located in. By the way, the customer is located in the UK.

[DaveN]

be careful we only shipped to the credit card holders address, good chance it is fraud. is the order unusual in size or expensive.

DaveN

[sullen]

It depends on what you're selling. It may be a gift, or the guy may be a diplomat or something.

In general, if the customer has given the correct billing address, then the order is reasonably likely to be genuine. It is also a good idea to ask for a telephone number - very few fraudsters are actually prepared to go through that kind of rigmarole - they would have to remember which name they should use and all sorts. If you don't have the telephone number, then you could ring international directory inquiries)

Plus of course it depends on the value of the order.

[wackal]

the order size is very large, an average order is around $50, but I have had orders as large as $200. This one is over $300. I don't have the email in front of me, but the order is for him and he said something about it would be easier for us to ship to his home in FL rather than ship to UK and then he would have to carry the order with him when he travels. We sell vinyl records, by the way. Not too much fraud with this product, but we have been burned a couple of times.

I could run the billing address he provided but I'm not too comfortable with AVS and overseas orders. How accurate is it when dealing with overseas customers? Also, how secure is the 3 digit code on th eback of the card. Has anybody been ripped off by someone using the correct code?

[ectect]

Hi

I think Sullen's right - give the guy a call. The 3 digit code is not much to go on - we've been ripped off a few times and now anything suspect results in a canceled order or a phone call.

Cheers

[wackal]

thanks for all the help guys. I think I will give him a call. Anything I should be on the lookout for, besides nervousness or evasive answers?

[Sunshyn]

I recall one potential customer who also wanted us to "to ship to his home in FL rather than ship to UK". We determined it was too risky and told him that, if we couldn't ship directly to the billing address, he'd have to send a money order. I don't think we ever heard back from him after that.

[Essex_boy]

Ditch the order.

He's shipping to a mail forwarding addres that will forwad to guess? Nigeria! Bet on it.

The the address through google see if you can locate the address as a mail forwarding service.

JUST dont TAKE the order.

[derekwong28]

I would do a reverse ip check to see whether this order orginated e.g. in the UK or somewhere else such as Nigeria

I would also check out the address in FL as well, it could be a transhipment address.

If he uses a free e-mail account with a funny address, then this is a minus.

Web sites selling high-risk products are now usually very successful in detecting fraud, therefore the crooks have started picking up soft targets i.e. sites that have little experience in dealing with it.

We once had an order where the customer used a German credit card with an Argentine billing address, for shipment to a transhipment address in FL. A reverse ip check revealed this order orginated in the Dominican republic. This order actually went through escrow.ca (it has now closed, and no wonder) All the same, we decided not to ship in the end.

If you are still worried, you can ask him to pay by T/T or use escrow.com

[caustic]

umm, U.S. accounts for 5% of world population, get used to it.

"Vinyl records" - I would not think this is targeted for fraud as a resellable item. If you have experienced fraud, then by all means clam up; there's fraud sure, but there's also the rest of the world wanting to give you money.

UK is not a country I have experienced fraud. Anyone else?

[DaveN]

>UK is not a country I have experienced fraud. Anyone else? <

I have a lot in the UK, in fact the states is where we get less fraud than any where else and we are UK based IMHO

DaveN

[derekwong28]

One of our greatest fraud attempts came from the UK. We had 12 different orders for a single item within 2 days costing around US$100-200 each.

All were to different shipping addresses. The only reason why we picked those up was that a couple used credit cards issued by US banks. The other orders used mail.com, usa.com or europe.com as their e-mail addresses.

Needless to say, if they had succeeded, our losses would have been large, and they would have carried on as well until we found out.

I agree vinyl records are not that resellable, but again r/c model helicopter accessories are not, and an acquiantance of ours had massive fraudulent orders from Spain recently.

[sullen]

Plus AVS is good for the UK. If anything it is too harsh - i.e. genuine customers are fail.

But $300 is a lot. Perhaps you should go with the money order idea.