Fradulent Use of Credit Card

[thedancingdaisy]

I wasn't quite sure where to put this. Sorry if it is not in the correct place.

I was recently contacted by a customer's brother. Let's call the customer Bob, and the customer's brother, Ray. Ray called me inquring about an charge/order. He wanted to know who placed it. I told him, Bob, where he proceeded to tell me that was impossible because Bob passed away in May. He then told me that another Internet company called him to inquiry about a charge, and that is when they found out about my companies charge/order. It was apparently a debit card that was used, and although the bank account is still open they have since canceled the debit card.

Nothing about the order threw me off as not being legit. The billing/shipping address where the same, and passed address verification with the debit card. The one thing about the order that I did find odd was it was for $11.95, with $8.95 of that being shipping. I have customers who spend $200 and complain about spending $10 on shipping, so spending more on shipping than the cost of the product seemed slightly odd to me. But I just chalked it up to Bob purchasing a sample, before placing a larger order.

Given the situation, what I find strange is that Bob, who is deceased placed an order and used the correct billing/shipping address, phone number, and Ray's email address. But I guess I can't begin to understand a crook, since I am not one myself.

The bank told Ray to contact my company. Since it was such a small amount of money, and to be done with this I just refunded the $11.95, and called it a day.

My question/concern is that I have never had a situation like this before, and being that I am strictly an Internet company, I doubt this will be my last. How are situations like this usually handled? I doubt companies usually just give a refund like I did. Is it handled different if it is a credit card vs a debit card? I guess any insight anyone can provide would be helpful, or at least if you could stear me in the right direction of where I could find more information on this...that would be great.

Thanks!

P.S. I love after typing a huge message it disappears and says I am not logged in and I have to do it all over again. Blah.

[www.frik-n-frak.com]

I think over 15 bucks you did the right thing - refund and be done with it.

However we had a similar situation (much larger order amount) and we opted to let Bob know that item XX was shipped on xx date and scanned delivered on blah blah date and/or signed for by Joe Schmo and etc. etc.

We offered to help him with his investigation in anyway that we could - providing him with detailed transaction information, etc.

Bob, in our case initiated a chargeback with his credit card company. We disputed the chargeback and won. So...

fr*k

[Eric]

hmmm how you know is really death? ppl invent all kind of story to scam i wouldn't have refound it.

[thedancingdaisy]

I don't. But to avoid further headache, I figured refunding $11.95 would be the best route.

Unfortunately, I recently received another order I feel leering about, and am feeling I need to put further measures in to protect myself.

[cekman]

I've sold on the intenet for 10 years and have taken credit cards for at least5 or 6. I have never had a charge back yet. I know it will happen - but my point is that it should definitely be the exception. If you start to have a lot of them then I would look into it further.

I'm with you on the refund. For $12 it's worth it to just refund the money and not go through the headache. The time alone would cost you a lot more than $12. I have had a number of times where customers have questioned things (item didn't arrive, etc.). I tend to believe the customer MOST of the time - unless I have proof of delivery etc.

I did have one large order that the post office delivered to a neighbor instead of my customer. I knew it was delivered because it was scanned. However the neighbor didn't give the package to my customer for WEEKS, so we had no idea this is what happened. Even though the order was higher ($60 or so) - I reshipped the order. Finally the neighbor told the customer they had the package and the customer returned the duplicate. I was out the extra shippping - but prevented a chargeback and kept the customer happy.

Unless my gut tells me I'm being cheated (or the order is very high) - I usually believe the customer.

I have had the Nigerian orders where they want 50 pieces of jewelry etc. and need it shipped immediately. I just kindly refuse those orders and don't process them at all. Once you've been in business a while you can usually start to see when things seem odd.

Good luck
Cekman
www.cobwebcorner.com