credit card fraud

[smidar]

I wish I had seen this site earlier and not made a fatal mistake in shipping my product before verifying the cc info. My first venture into ecommerce cost me $980. That shipment was made to an apartment in Detroit.I received another order just today for $830 and the address is the same but the names have been changed. What can be done? will police even investigate a small amount like this? The credit card company is useless, not even offering to notify the account holder when I called in to request confirmation.I guess I'm naive about credit card fraud, but aren't they opening up to a possible "sting" operation by having goods shipped to a phony location?
As far as the Nigeria threads I read, I also was contacted with credit card info and after I explained that I was not able to ship 300lbs of frozen steaks to Nigeria, they offered to pay me up front for $3000 worth of unlocked cell phones.

[wayzel]

Fraud is always a problem. Sorry to hear the bad news. I had a similar fraud loss on a laptop someone purchased from me with a fake certified check given to the Fedex driver as COD payment. The bank pulled the money out of my account a week later (just like the credit card companies will likely do in your case.)

You can file a complaint with your local police department but I doubt anything would come out of it. I did the same to no avail...however it serves as proof of a loss for tax return filing (which may help cut your loss a bit.) If anything, it may make you feel better.

There is tons of good info on this board on how to minimize ecommerce fraud in the future. Just do a search for "fraud." Programs like Verified by Visa may also protect you in cases like this.

[wayzel]

One more thing, since they put in another order, maybe you can get your police department to have the police department at the delivery location go check out the scene at the same time as scheduled delivery. You know, pretend like you are honoring the order, fill the box with paper or something worthless, and give the police several days notice, call them there to confirm that they are sending a cop out there, etc. Worth the trouble I'd think.

[Corey Bryant]

It is theft - try to see if you can get the police involved - as was already mentioned. Another thing - if they say no - call back on another shift, you might get someone who will say yes. Maybe he has been ripped off before on the internet.

Do you get a phone number - maybe call & verify they ordered it? Did the owner of the CC say it was stolen or something?

-Corey

[Morocco]

Verified by Visa is the way to go. You are protected on every transaction that passes AVS, regardless of shipping address.