Can this be fraud? whats your opinion

[rsia23]

I got an order today from FL and the AVS doesn't match (Bad zip, Bad add). Also the shipping that he chose is almost the same as the item. Total item cost was $50 and shipping was 49.

Now im worried of shipping the item. Does order like this happen? or does it look like a fraud?

Any advice or tips or opions is greatly appreciated.. thanks again guys

[derekwong28]

I would do some reserch on that shipment address. It could be a transhipment centre for shipment to a Central or South American country. There are loads of transhipment centres in Florida. It does not necessarily mean that it is not valid.

[Morgenhund]

Heh :) Welcome to the club :)

You might do some steps:
- send them E-Mail and ask:
phone CC owner, or
why informaion does not match? or
ask to fax to you their CC image, or
ask to fax to you their ID.

Or all of the above:)

Some fraud-makers are shy enought replying to such requests :)

[rsia23]

My main concern is that he was not able to supply the correct info with his credit card address. I did ask him for his cc info again and he gave me a GA (state) one. Now FL and GA seems a bit far =) and it did flag up as invalid again in AVS. Now im really worried and might void this transaction.

[RedWolf]

My first reaction is that it is fraud. It is possible it could be real, but very unlikely. I have placed orders before where shipping was as much as the product, but it was something that I had to have the next day. The way I approach these is to contact the customer and tell them that I can only ship to an address that is on file with their credit card company. I tell them to call their bank and have them put the shipping address into the record as an alternative shipping address and let me know when they have done this. I then call the bank up an verbally verify the full shipping address not just the numbers that AVS checks. About a third of the time the customer will do this and I process the order. I figure the rest either are outright frauds or not really people I want to deal with.

[rsia23]

Good point btw Morgenhund, I might do that with my future investigations. =)

[Essex_boy]

Fraud!

Shipping is as much as the item - unless its custom built scrap the order.

[rsia23]

Yup, i asked him for the info the 2nd time and he never responded back.. tsk tsk tsk

[feiman]

Generally speaking, if the AVS fails, try and find a way to verify (call, email, etc) before fulfilling the order. If you get an AVS failure and ship the order, you have no defense against a chargeback. As the credit card companies say, if you decide to ship against an AVS failure or if the shipping address doesn't match the billing address and the customer wants a chargeback, its the "cost of doing business".

[wattsnew]

I had the strange experience of an order from a N. African/Mediterranean country for a $20 product with Worldwide Express shipping at over $50. The card info looked OK. Then another identical order from the same place, different buyer, next day. Then a repeat order from the first buyer within three days!

Not speaking the language, I emailed the customer anyway suggesting available cheaper shipping methods. No reply, but over two weeks more than a dozen additional single unit orders sent Worldwide Express - about half of them repeat orders.

Nothing ever again from the place after that flurry. I've always wondered what they were using the product for - and learned never to cry "fraud" too fast. At $20 and a utilitarian product, I've only been defrauded (via chargebacks) three times in two years, never by fake or stolen cards.

W

[digitalv]

You should probably change your gateway settings to automatically decline cards where AVS doesn't match - then you don't have to mess with voiding it later.

This one sounds like fraud to me. Make it a policy to only ship merchandise to an AVS-Verified address, otherwise word will get around that you'll ship "anywhere" and you'll get bombarded with more fraudulent orders than legit ones.

People will take whatever they can get when it comes to online fraud because no matter what it is they can sell it on eBay ... doesn't matter to them whether its worth $1 or $1,000 - if it doesn't cost them anything to get it they still turn a profit.