Re: Probable Scam - How?

["Robert L Bass" <Sales@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

"jrbd99" wrote:
>
> I figured out the scam.  It has to do with shipping fees, since
> the turnstiles are shipped via freight.  He wanted to use his
> own shipper, but then (in an email after I posted my question)
> told me that I would have to contact the shipper to make
> arrangements.  Keep in mind that all of the email addresses
> so far are Gmail.

Good catch.  A lot of scammers use free, untreaceable email accounts such as
Gmail.  I hadn't considered the "shipping fees" angle since we routinely
ignore these RFQ's.  We get a fair number of email requests for quotes of 200,
300 or more smoke detectors to be shipped to one or another sub-saharan
African countries.

We occasionally get "Internet Relay" calls where a US telco operator speaks to
us as the "customer" types on a TTY device.  These invariably involve a large,
international order.  The perp insists he needs it fulfilled immediately and
wants to use a credit card.  These rip-offs are so common that Verizon's
software, which monitors IR calls for key phrases, causes another operator to
cut in on the call and warn the US merchant that this appears to be a fraud.
They then ask if you wish to continue the conversation.  After the first few
such calls we made it a policy to tell IR operators that if the caller wants
to do an international order we are not interested.

> I was originally thinking stolen credit card, as well, but given
> our product cost, I doubt many credit cards would get an
> approval.  Fun stuff.

I don't know how many turnstiles the supposed order was to involve, but it
certainly sounded like a scam.  We occasionally take credit cards orders in
excess of $10K.  Within certain boundaries you can set your own limits for
online orders.  With commercial account "check cards" the limits can be very
high.  The bad guys are always looking for a new way to separate you from your
hard-earned bucks.  Ah, well...

--

Regards,
Robert L Bass

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