I hate thieves

[Chris]

I got a chargeback today, a guy from Sweden, $400 charge. Stolen card.

So annoying.

The thing is, he had to pay customs duties, provide identification, and obviously exist to accept payment, and this thief still used a stolen card (I'm pretty sure it isn't merely cardholder fraud).

What is so very annoying is I have no avenue of pursuing this. This guy I'm sure would be so easy to arrest, and yet, who do I call? What do I do?

I already don't ship to half the world because of this issue, international orders are 20x more likely to be fraudulent because the thieves know they can get away with it.

I always figured Sweden was developed enough to trust in having less crime, but I guess they're just too close to Russia.

It isn't like all these foreign banks even provide address verification. CVV number did match.

This is the guy's info, obviously the address has to be real.

Martin Johnsson
Äpplerums bygata 14
Borgholm, 38794
Sweden, Sweden
0708671409
FAX #:
E-Mail Address: Bloodcrest@gmail.com
194.237.160.81

Obviously the address is real, or he would not have been able to accept delivery. I'm putting this up here so that maybe if one day another merchant Google's this address they'll see a thief lives there.

[demosfen]

One of the reasons I offer a discount to buyers who pay by other payment methods than credit card

[Chris]

Yes, I do that too, but even so.

[Cutter]

Interpol?

[MissMandy]

At the Casino group I work for, the highest group of people caught cheating are chinese. The next are swedes! and this is in a country thats on the other side of the world from Sweden and gets almost no swedish tourists.

[mobilebadboy]

I get this all the time with somebody I work with together online. It's bad being as we have digital products, they steal the products then turn around and redistribute them for free all over the net.

So we're really getting screwed.

[Chris]

But you're not out the cost of the product if it is digital... or shipping.

[Jens]

This is the guy's info, obviously the address has to be real.

Martin Johnsson
Äpplerums bygata 14
Borgholm, 38794
Sweden, Sweden
0708671409
FAX #:
E-Mail Address: Bloodcrest@gmail.com
194.237.160.81


Don't let him get away with this, just because he is swedish. Your information is most probably correct, but his last name is Johansson. An adress search in the swedish phone book gives som aditional information: http://privatpersoner.eniro.se/query?what=wp&search_word=&geo_area=%C4pplerums+bygata+14

These to names are most likely his parents. You can try to make contact with them, or you can contact the swedish embassy in your country to get some advices. You can also contact the local police station in Borgholm: polismyndigheten.kalmar@polisen.se

...and some more information: http://www.applerumslantgard.se/eng/eng_index.html

[Chris]

Thanks for the info. But there is of course a language barrier.

Tell you what though, since I'm guessing you are swedish. If you can recover it for me I'll give you half. That's $200.

[agua]

Most Scandinavians have a pretty good comprehension of English from my encounters... give it a go.


but I guess they're just too close to Russia.Isn't the USA closer?

[Chris]

.... No. I guess you're thinking of Alaska?

[agua]

Isn't Alaska part of the USA? :confused: :confused:

[Chris]

Yes, but immigration wise you don't get a lot of people moving across the Bering Strait. Whereas major population centers of Russia (St Petersburg for instance) are close to the Scandinavian Peninsula. Not that I was wholly serious about Sweden having a Russian influence.

[agua]

Phew - I thought I was going to have to retake geography :)

Not that I was wholly serious about Sweden having a Russian influence.I'm glad - it didn't sound like one of your normal posts.

[jbladeus]

I've provided services to a number of swedish clients and all in all, they are quite decent folks. But i guess rotten eggs are everywhere who give their country a bad name.

And yes, english is commonly spoken in scandinavian countries so you shouldnt have much problems in that regards. Good luck.

[FPU]

So how does one require payment for merchandise that is sure so you will not get ripped off ???

Direct Bank wire transfer is one way.

[Chris]

Nah, bank wire is risky too because you need to give them bank data.

I just require international money orders (western union) then don't ship until they clear.

[FPU]

For large transactions that is the only way to fly, but you may be right, for small ecommerce deals there has to be a better way.

How would they abuse wire transfer data ?

Many companies freely publish it and even have different wire transfer accounts for different currencies.

[Chris]

I'm not sure, but giving out your checking account number and bank routing number isn't something I'm going to regularly do. Theoretically they could withdraw just as easily as deposit.

I believe, the safe way to do wires, is to have an account setup for nothing other than receiving, and then to immediately transfer funds out of it once received.

[Westech]

We keep a separate account just for receiving wire transfers. As soon as anything comes in we immediately clear it out, minus the $50 minimum to keep the account open.

[FPU]

Exactly, but even if there is money in there, no bank is going to just give someone funds, if that was the case the last guy to wire me 6 grand would have tried that.

I think you both worry too much, banks are not in the business of letting folks do reverse wire transfers and they would be liable for it if you had nothing to do with it.

[Chris]

They could make fraudulent checks... not worrying about who has those numbers is like not worrying if you lost your checkbook.

Especially when you're already suspicious to begin with, if you thought they were entirely trustworthy you'd just take their (likely stolen) credit card.

[FPU]

But many people have those numbers, in fact everyone you wrote checks to over the years, any one working for those companies could have copied your routing numbers.

But how many times do you see charges coming through ?

It is up to all of us to review our bank records and credit card bills, if you just pay any bill you have blindly extra charges could be on those too.

Scammers could have taken a loan out in your name also if you do not have credit lock, they could have credit cards taken out in your name also, so you have to watch your credit report in real time if you are that paranoid.

Your checking account is not the only way you can get scammed, if you did not sign the check most likely the bank is not going to pay it anyway, if it is electronic there are other safeguards the vendor must have to accept electronic payment.

The only way a scammer can scam you is if you have given your data to them, SS #, DOB, address credit card is sent to and so on.

This is why phishing is out of control, because stupid people fall for con men scams and volunteer this data.

[Chris]

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.

What are the chances that not shredding a credit card bill before throwing it away leads to fraud?

They odds of someone dumpster diving your trash may be small, but nonetheless, you do not want it to happen to you. This is doubly true with checking accounts. Federal law limits the amount any consumer can lose to credit card fraud to $50, there is no such limit for bank accounts.

Every small step you can take helps.

Personally, I'm not comfortable giving my bank details to a Russian whom I'm pretty sure is a wannabe hacker and is trying to scam me using stolen credit card information he probably got off a wannabe hacker website or by installing spyware on some poor saps system. I'll ask him for a money order, and if he is unwilling, such is life. I'd rather not have the profit than take the risk of losing the item and what I paid to ship to to him (usually 200+ just for shipping).

You're more than welcome to run your business as you see fit, but if you don't trust someone enough to accept their credit card... giving them your bank details probably isn't a good idea either. A thief is a thief.

[FPU]

LOL man, I burn all my trash in a 55 gallon steel drum, the only thing that comes out of it are ashes, iron and molten aluminum !! :lol:

You did press upon one good point, if your order is coming from a known open proxy that hackers use then I would not accept the credit card either.

You also bring up a valid point that all upstart e-commerce webmasters should know about, to be frank about it, I never thought about what happened to you was common to ecom sites, but am aware of how charge back scams can burn merchants even from scammers in the USA working credit card scams, it does not have to be someone from Russia or Nigeria.

[EvilEmpire]

If you want Chris, I can help you in this issue. Im a swede myself.
And we have very very strict rules about theese kind of things.
________
How to roll a blunt (http://howtorollablunt.net/)

[Chris]

Well, same offer, if you can recover the funds, I'll give you half as a reward.

Any information you want, let me know.

[FPU]

The money is not the issue, you will most likely never get that back, but you should let the police investigate this so that this man may be thrown in jail Chris.

[Chris]

I think I just avoided another thief...

A danish billing address, Canadian IP, shipping to "Shih Hsin Wang" in Canada.

Tell them no, pay with money order if they want it shipped to a different country than the billing address. They hem and haw for a few days, then give up.

Few days later:

Another order, different Danish billing address name, same products, same person in Canada to receive goods... hrm... No.

[FPU]

So you will take a credit card on your ecom sites only if they are from the USA ?

What about PayPal, is that safe for merchants to accept on international orders ?

[Chris]

No, I take credit cards from western europe, canada, australia, and new zealand as well. I won't accept them from any developing country, from any former soviet country, nor will I accept them when the billing address and the shipping address are separated by an ocean.

[Dan Schulz]

Which is just plain common sense, Chris. If only more people had it (and used it) things like this probably wouldn't happen as much (yeah, I know, I'm being naive here, but everyone's entitled to it once in a blue moon or thirty).

[qoqonut.com]

So if someone buys something from you with a stolen credit card, then later the card was reported... the credit card company makes you give back the money??

[Chris]

yes.

[Gate2Shop]

They speak English quite well from my experience with them.

[hairycaterpillar]

We found a site jaybid.com which was advertised on facebook. It was set up as an auction site and had loads of ridiculous bids, (ie £500 for £50) also the source code didn't look right. There was no contact details on the site, so we did some research and found his name, then emailed him to say we couldn't log in and asked him if his site was for real (nintendo wii for £5!) He sent an email back asking how we found his name and email address. Within a few hours the site had taken all the products off and only showed a maintenance message.
I wondered if there was an official 'name and shame' site, but I suppose the legal implications could be difficult. It's hard to feel that justice was done though because the hosting providers simply thanked us for informing them and we heard nothing else!
(I would have trusted a Swedish buyer too. Sorry to have detracted from the thread slightly)