Forum Moderators: buckworks
I've got Nigeria and Ghana in big red ink. Anyone else we should be worried from?
Provided that the credit card is issued by a bank in those countries, and that all the other details are consistent. I cannot see any reason why not to ship. We will also ship orders made by NGOs, charities, and UN agencies to high risk countries.
The only extreme action we have taken so far was against Vietnam where we almost block all their ip addreses. The problem was that we were getting so many fraudulent orders a day that it was taking up much of our admin time. The last straw came when a frustrated fraudster made an order to be shipped to the real address of the cardholder. This was probably because he wanted to get back at us for declining his orders.
Provided that the credit card is issued by a bank in those countries
That proves nothing as the banks the fraudsters use are probably corrupt - would you trust your life savings to a Nigerian bank? Thought not.
I actually don't ship anywhere outside the US - but would never even consider shipping to any African country, Indonesia - in fact 99% of far eastern countries, Eastern Europe, South America, any country ending in "stan", India, and probably a load more.
If you sell high ticket items, you can afford the luxury of manual validation - calling the customer, verifying with their bank (if you can trust them, that is) - in my case, the added hassle is simply not worth it.
I've only ever shipped to the UK and Ireland, but have sent other small value items to countries i trust, such as France and Spain.
I have recently added all the countries in the European Union as well as Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Iceland and Gibraltar. Is anyone wary of any of those countries? Romania is definately a no-no when they join the EU, but what about any existing members. I hear a lot about 'eastern countries', is that including Poland and Hungary etc.?
Although we got hit badly in the beginning, we have now got enough experience to manage our risks accordingly. At one time, we bought insurance against fraudulent chargebacks but we don't need it anymore. We have not had a chargeback due to fraud for several months and we do sell high risk electronic items.
Nigerian and Indonesian fraudsters are like to have obtained CC details by hacking. Whereas very few of their citizens are likely to have credit cards issued by their bank. I think you really must assess how much risk you are willing to take. I feel that there are "school fees" that have to be paid.
Although we have got CC transactions sorted out, we are worried about PayPal transactions from unverified members because PayPal does not much information for us to check e.g. CVS, AVS.
ps. Malaysia is in the high risk category, and so is Indonesian, Philipines, and Vietnam. Singapore and China are medium risk. Brunei and Taiwan are low risks. All the countries in Eastern Europe and former USSR. Yugoslavia is pretty bad. Southern European countries are OK. As far as Middle Eastern countries are concerned, the Gulf states are very honest. We have had attempted frauds from Iran. South Africa is medium risk but all the other countries in Africa should be considered as high risk. Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile are medium risk, the rest should be considered as high risks. You should also be aware that customers from these countries may use transhipment addresses in the US.
You should also be aware that customers from these countries may use transhipment addresses in the US.
Yes, addresses in U.S. port cities are often funneling goods outside the country. Miami addesses can be forwarders sending goods to South America. We used to get a ton of those and usually didn't ship. Many are good, however, I believe.
Anyone have a track record dealing with U.S. based forwarders?
