Spammy scammy

Wine Pimps
21

Our of curiosity, if a retailer accepts a credit card that is stolen, does the credit card company force the retailer to take the loss, or does the company (ie Amex) take the loss?

22

Take a guess…

23

exactly Eric !

I found the real phone number for the attorney and he was absolutely shocked but so thankful we found him to let him know someone was trying to use his Cc.

24

And another thing, all of the bogus orders we’ve recently got come out of the LA area: Encino, Beverly Hills. All the card holders have $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Carrie read an article about a group of victims in another state had all had dinner on the same night at a particular, $$$$, restaurant.

So in addition to card readers on self serve gas pumps, now they are working restaurants and other places where good money is spent. Orders are last minute, (Wed or Thurs), and overnighted. This particular group of crooks are articulate and savy. Using attorneys and corporate heads gives the bogus orders more credibility on the face. The wines ordered are more sophisticated, (like somebody working within the restaurant business would know), and not like the old Cristal and Dom orders.

LA members, check your card activity!

25

Randy, thank you so much for this warning. I checked my card activity, and sure enough there are a series of outrageous charges at wine stores all over the country, including yours. These purchases seem to go back over many years. I will definitely investigate this further!!! [swearing.gif]

26

Randy,

There were recent fraud reports from numerous people who live and/or used their credit card at a now out of business gas station in a fairly wealthy area of L.A. (Sierra Madre). So given the timing and location, it’s possibly related (although that’s speculation on my part).

27

Ken,

You can’t dispute purchase under $20.00, so we’re safe. neener

28

Andy,
The atty I talked to thinks it was restaurant he had been to because it was one of the only places he used this particular Cc.

29

We’ve been getting the lowest of the low a lot lately: assholes who use American Express’ service for the hearing impaired to try and make bogus credit card orders. I always tell them that I will only take the order if they conference call with the FBI fraud division but one of my new guys spent a lot of time on the phone the other night with someone who wanted 100 bottles of $100 Champagne and would have a currier pick it up as soon as the credit card ran.

They ALWAYS want Champagne, high end Cognac or Malt and / or Opus One, things they can flip quickly.

30

I used to work for a high end audio retailer that did most of the business over the phone. This was before the internet scamming became huge, but we still had several attempts to place fraudulent orders and most of them were spotted before the order shipped.

The usual redflags were next day shipping, phone numbers and address that did not match up, customers that were all too eager to place orders, no haggling on prices, orders at the end of the day, and even the deaf relay operators.

Total maggots at work.

31

Glenn,
The order I received was a guy who spent 2 days corresponding through email, he said he was referred by Keith, which wouldn’t be out of the ordinary because we have a Keith that refers a decent amount of biz to us. The guy tried to talk me down on price, he even emailed me back with the Cc and security code for the Am Ex to make sure there were no errors. He had asked on Wednesday if he decides to go ahead with the order can I get it to him by today. He asked if the Scarecrow came in OWC because he has a collection. When I told him the Cc had been declined he said he’d have his partner order. Which he did w/another bogus Am exp.
All the correspondence was extremely well written, didn’t sound like a nigerian and had set up an email acct on att.net with the victims name. The scammers usually go for big ticket items but both my brother & I have received bogus order for stuff in the $40 range. We had another for 1 bottle of Prager Port, that victim is vacationing in Australia. I’ve learned to double check everyone.

32

Carrie, that’s a tough one to crack. Things have gotten much worse apparently.

It must be hard sometimes to know when to outright refuse an order when you might be turning away legitimate business.

I would insist on voice to voice contact with the buyer on any suspicous online order and even then the true pro’s might sound convincing. Before cell phone only households were common we did verify every phone number with directory assistance.

We would ask questions to our new customers to qualify them to see if they were knowlegable about the expensive products they were ordering.

In this case you did your detective work and made the right choice.

33

The Grand Finale of this escapade… The guy emails me yesterday asking where his wine is. I told him it had been delivered at 10:00, he said “I never received anything”. I emailed him back that he cold find it at the FBI office near him. He emailed me back a picture of a bunch of people celebrating drinking wine, with a wink after it and wishing me a Happy New Year.

34

[rofl.gif]

35

With such a suspicious nature, I’d almost suspect you spend a lot of time hanging-out with a cop… [tease.gif]