Credit Card Fraud……… Do not  be on the sucker end of it.  READ and LEARN!

I have a home based ecommerce business.  I am honest, treat people honestly and believe that’s what I will receive in return.

I received an order that came to a few thousand dollars.  I thought that if your VISA card company  gave you a confirmation number that they had checked the card out and all was as it should be.    WRONG! 

What they do is tell you if there is enough credit to cover your request. Period!  Not that the card is valid with the person your selling a product to.

Today this lady asked for several thousand dollars of merchandise to be split between 3 Discover cards.  I ran them and they were declined.  I notified the woman by email that they were declined.   I then realized they were Discover cards and decided that maybe I am only cleared for VISA, so I called my VISA card company to ask.

As I was waiting for the VISA company to help me, she emailed me with three more VISA cards.  I notified my company and They said  the Discover cards were declined,  and I was advised to cancel any business with this person.  They said, think about it, Who has that many cards?  Well unfortunately I know women with up to 10 cards, so it was not totally out of the norm.  They gave me a number of Chase Bank to call and check to see if all the info was valid.

I called them, they said the VISA numbers did not match the name, and asked for her address.  She gave me her address, just a short while prior to my call to them, which was in Fort Lauderdale Florida.  I have a brother there and had already called to see if the address’s were valid.  He said stop doing business until your sure of the validity of the card.  The home address she gave was four or five hour’s from her business address.  The Business address was on airport road where the mail drop stores are.  The  Billing information address was in LA.

After giving Chase Bank all the information I had on her, they said the information does not match and to not continue business with her.

I feel I did business in good faith and am very frustrated that someone would continue to try and scam me after the email I sent her explaining I could not handle the financial loss.

As you see here she continued to push the scam, even after telling her the banks said the numbers did not match.

My response:

She used the operator assisted call’s to communicate when using the phone.  These are for the hearing and visual impaired according to the operator.   I assumed she was, and the English was a second language.  

The flags did not go up with those assumptions until the three Discover cards.

The sad news is that from now on when someone wants to use a Credit Card, I will call Chase Bank and check to see if it’s the correct owner before I move forward.   That punishes me as well as the future customers.  Slows down a transaction and adds a whole new feel of distrust to our business.

For those of you out there that don’t think twice about scamming and burying someone  with huge charge card return’s,  you will eventually get what you deserve.  I believe that.  The best I can hope for is that a similar scam is done to you.   I know I will be more aware and I hope by writing this Blog I can keep at least one other person from your crooked claws!  At least anyone who reads this will know NOT to do business with this lady……………………..

I am frustrated and angry with this person.  Not as much for the original scam as for continuing after I informed her I have a sick husband and can not take the financial loss of the products plus pay back for a VISA card I took in good faith.  This is a good reason small business owners do not make it!  It’s  hard to get the appropriate information we need to make viable decisions when we need to.