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Anyone who has done ecommerce for any period of time is used to weird orders that come in from stolen credit cards.. I learned this the hard way when I shipped

by ada1981 13y ago

Anyone who has done ecommerce for any period of time is used to weird orders that come in from stolen credit cards.. I learned this the hard way when I shipped $10,000 in XL ultimate frisbee tshirts to (I can't believe I'm admitting this) Nigeria when I was a college student - only to have a charge back a few months later. I get wierd charges on CreditCovers.com all the time, and sure enough in a month there is a charge back. People just hit up all sorts of sites and order products in hopes something will come of it.

iamshs 13y ago
Wow, you took 10K hit while being in college. Brutal. So does a payment gateway not handle weed these scams for you?
pavel_lishin 13y ago
I'm trying to come up with a reason why someone would want, specifically, $10k worth of XL ultimate frisbee tshirts.
- ada1981 13y ago
  Well.. the story is actually probably worth it.. The way it went down was I got this request for a big order (My memory says it was $10k, could have been less).. I only had basic PayPal and couldn't accept credit cards. I was on the phone with my screen printer and the convo went something like this: "So, I have this big $10k order for t-shirts, but I can't process the credit card." "Oh, well, we could process it if you want and then just credit you with your markup." "Well I've never done this before, so like, what if they are a scam or something..." "As long as the card goes through, there is no risk to you." !!!!! "Oh, well in that case, sure." You can imagine in 3 months when they called to tell me there was a charge back I was surprised! I insisted that I wasn't in the wrong because their sales rep (who wanted a commission) gave me incorrect information that I made a decision on. In the end, the company owner offered to split it with me 50/50, but only like a hard ass 21 year old can, I told him I wasn't paying a dime. (I didn't have the money and I really felt like it was his problem.) I won my moral battle with him, but I lost the relationship. I ended up losing my screen printer and after trying to print shirts myself in a dorm room, ended up folding the company.... I think the lesson learned here, aside from the obvious one about Nigerian Ultimate Frisbee players, was that the relationship is the most important thing -- even if you are technically right, preserving relationships is much more important. I ought to have taken the 50/50 offer and asked to pay it back over time, perhaps just with increased prices per unit. Luckily, I didn't "help out" the buyer of the shirts and ship him all those cell phones he asked about. When I confronted him about the scam, he sent me a weird email about being a revolutionary. If you are ever over in Nigeria, keep an eye out for some long sleeve yellow tshirts that say "Flick & Hammer" on them.
mathattack 13y ago
Ouch! Was that 10K lesson worth all the classes it would have paid for? (I suspect it might be)
AsymetricCom 13y ago
Isn't it amazing how credit companies manage risk so well?

by ada1981 13y ago

iamshs 13y ago

Wow, you took 10K hit while being in college. Brutal. So does a payment gateway not handle weed these scams for you?

pavel_lishin 13y ago

I'm trying to come up with a reason why someone would want, specifically, $10k worth of XL ultimate frisbee tshirts.

ada1981 13y ago
Well.. the story is actually probably worth it.. The way it went down was I got this request for a big order (My memory says it was $10k, could have been less).. I only had basic PayPal and couldn't accept credit cards. I was on the phone with my screen printer and the convo went something like this: "So, I have this big $10k order for t-shirts, but I can't process the credit card." "Oh, well, we could process it if you want and then just credit you with your markup." "Well I've never done this before, so like, what if they are a scam or something..." "As long as the card goes through, there is no risk to you." !!!!! "Oh, well in that case, sure." You can imagine in 3 months when they called to tell me there was a charge back I was surprised! I insisted that I wasn't in the wrong because their sales rep (who wanted a commission) gave me incorrect information that I made a decision on. In the end, the company owner offered to split it with me 50/50, but only like a hard ass 21 year old can, I told him I wasn't paying a dime. (I didn't have the money and I really felt like it was his problem.) I won my moral battle with him, but I lost the relationship. I ended up losing my screen printer and after trying to print shirts myself in a dorm room, ended up folding the company.... I think the lesson learned here, aside from the obvious one about Nigerian Ultimate Frisbee players, was that the relationship is the most important thing -- even if you are technically right, preserving relationships is much more important. I ought to have taken the 50/50 offer and asked to pay it back over time, perhaps just with increased prices per unit. Luckily, I didn't "help out" the buyer of the shirts and ship him all those cell phones he asked about. When I confronted him about the scam, he sent me a weird email about being a revolutionary. If you are ever over in Nigeria, keep an eye out for some long sleeve yellow tshirts that say "Flick & Hammer" on them.

mathattack 13y ago

Ouch! Was that 10K lesson worth all the classes it would have paid for? (I suspect it might be)

AsymetricCom 13y ago

Isn't it amazing how credit companies manage risk so well?