Forum Moderators: buckworks
I am in the final stages of adding content for an ecommerce site that will be selling durable widgets. As of now, I have done zero SEO or web marketing for the site, it it not indexed by any of the major search engines, but the domain name is active. The only way someone could find the site (to my knowlege) would be to directly enter the domain name at the address line of a browser - and it is a somewhat lengthy name the shouldn't be a common target for typos.
Yesterday, I actually got an email through the "contact us" link on the site from a person claiming to be in Hong Kong wanting to order several products and asking if we can deliver internationally via courier or whatever. At this point we don't yet have our gateway and merchant account set up (that will be done next week), and our original intentions were to sell only in the USA, at least initially.
Does anyone have any ideas how this individual might have stumbled upon our site, or is this type of thing related to a common scam? I'm fairly new to this game, so I thought it would be a ggod idea to see if this is a common trap before I reply to the email.
Thanks for any insight you all can provide.
[edited by: lorax at 6:41 pm (utc) on April 30, 2006]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]
Likely they did NOT stumble there. There are folks who watch for recently purchased DNs. That's the first step in scouting a likely target. Get intelligence on them through the DN. Be cautious.
How would you recommend that I proceed? Should I reply to the email telling him that the site is not yet active and only for USA customers, or would it be wise to ignore it altogether? Do you have any tips that I can use to protect my site and domain name?
Thanks for the reply.
Your DN is public record - nothing you can do about that. But you can protect your privacy by purchasing a privacy screen for your domain name through the registrar. This will hide your personal contact info from public view.
Our ecommerce store in Hong Kong has been targetted by a couple of local nigerian gangs in the past. They even use US based VoIP phone numbers and provided a seemingly legit local address.
Bottom line, if you're not willing to take the risk, forget about it and move on.
We get fraud attempts from HK. We only ship within the U.S. which policy is very clear to anyone who glances at our site. We don't bother to answer the scam emails.
Tip: never, ever state on your site that you are new to e-commerce.
Its the courier thing that give me the hee bee gee bees.
Its the courier thing that give me the hee bee gee bees.
Yep, big red flag when they tell you exactly how they want products shipped and without regard to cost. "Courier" is one-- of many --red flag words.
Hate to go into detail about "red flags" because undoubtedly some scammers read these boards. But these idiots AREN'T VERY GOOD at what they do. Few have command of English. They are VERY easy to spot. And oddly, their methods and scrips haven't improved in a decade:
Witness: "I am Ungowa Mugaman, son of the late..."
Does that really work anymore...?
Its the courier thing that give me the hee bee gee bees.
Yep, big red flag when they tell you exactly how they want products shipped and without regard to cost. "Courier" is one-- of many --red flag words.
Hate to go into detail about "red flags" because undoubtedly some scammers read these boards. But these idiots AREN'T VERY GOOD at what they do. Few have command of English. They are VERY easy to spot. And oddly, their methods and scrips haven't improved in a decade:
Witness: "I am Ungowa Mugaman, son of the late..."
Does that really work anymore...?
If you're gonna be picky then I feel the (sad) need to point out that s/he *posted* it twice, and thus only *repeated* it once! B^>
Rgds
Damon
We have had fraud attempts from Hong Kong before, but these are likely to come from non-local residents from Africa or the Middle East. If their address is in ChungKing Mansions, then I would definitely be very suspicious.
We ship credit card orders everyday to high risk countries that had included Nigeria, Congo, Ghana, Indonesia, Philipines, Vietnam, Pakistan, and countries from E Europe, and Latin America. We hardly ever get any chargebacks because of credit card fraud. But we have got a lot of experience.
Can you tell me what T/T stands for?
Thanks
