A Scam?

[Pawel Kowalski]

A company I work with got a request from some guy in west africa to ship about $5,000 worth of products to. He wants to use a company called FASTTRACKSHIPPINGINC to handle the freight and the only way to get in touch with this company is by email, no web site, no phone, no address, no anything.

I know what you are thinking, that this is obviously a scam and why am I here wasting your times. The thing is this guy provided us with a credit card that seems to work and he will be paying the freight company. So I really don't see how this can be a scam but I am very naive when it comes to these things. Here is an email:

HELLO, xxxxx

MANY THANKS FOR YOUR REPLY,WELL AM OK WITH WHAT YOU SAID, ONCE AGAIN I HAVE RECOMMEND A FREIGHT COMPANY FOR THE PICKUP.ACTUALLY I AM SHIPPING THE ITEMS TO NEW COMPANY IN WEST AFRICA AND I WILL LIKE YOU TO CONTACT THIS FREIGHT COMAPNY FOR THE PICK UP fasttrackshippinginc@fastermail.com) AND TELL THEM YOU ARE SHIPPING ( 10ea blowers ) UNITS OF THE TOTAL WEIGHT xxx AND IT IS GOING TO THE ADDRESS BELOW:

22 OLD ALASKA AVENUE
ACCRA,NEW TOWN,00212
GHANA, WEST AFRICA

AND INCLUDE YOUR ADDRESS AND YOUR PICK UP LOCATION AND THEY WILL SURELY GET BACK TO YOU WITH THE FREIGHT COST.AS SOON AS THEY GET BACK TO YOU WITH THE FREIGHT COST,JUST LET ME KNOW THE TOTAL COST FOR BOTH THE SHIPPING COST AND THE ITMES SO THAT I CAN FINALIZE THE ORDER WITH MY CREDIT CARD.HOPE TO HEAR FROM YOU SOON,

BEST REGARDS,
mr.<name removed>

If anyone has any ideas I would certainly appreciate it.

[Emac]

Can you contact the credit card issuer i.e. Visa or a Bank ect and find out if it's
- his credit card/his company's - or stolen ect?

[Gwaihir]

That he only seems to have an e-mail address for that shipping company doesn't necessarily mean much. You could e-mail them and ask them where they are based. As an "INC", I suppose they must be registered somewhere (though possibly in Africa only).

Perhaps the credit card company can confirm (or deny) whether that shipping address matches with the credit card data?

[Vin DSL]

Bwahahaha!

ALASKA AVENUE in GHANA, WEST AFRICA ?

Give me a &^%! break...

Have 'em sign up for an account at JagPC as a good faith gesture and see if they pass muster!

[the_ancient]

Have him fax you a Photo copy of the Card, Driver lic of the Card Holder WITH the proper AVS Address on it.

Then Contact the issuing card company and Verify OVER THE PHONE all of the info on the card.


In the end it is your $5,000, you have zero protection...

Can you afford to Lose $5K

[Ron]

I don't understand that, T_A. IF he gets approval from the card company, and assuming he calles the issuer and double checks with them, why is it his risk?

[Connie]

Personally I would be leary. Even if you can verify the information (which I think will be difficult at best), there is no reason after the merchandise is shipped that someone cant call the CC issurer and tell them they do not recognize the charge.

In fact I recently went through this. The owner of the card made the purchase. A secretary who goes through the bills did not recognize the charge. She called the CC company and I had a charge back. I eventually won, but it took like two months to get my money back.

I have also lost disputes, even though all information was verified.

[Pawel Kowalski]

Thanks for all the feedback guys. What I understand from the accounting department is they will be requesting a money order instead of a credit card payment. We'll see how that goes.

[thecoalman]

Scam...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17822386/

See the video link "3: ‘Hansen Discount Electronics’" for how it applies to you. It's actually quite interesting if you want to watch the whole video, the shipping comapany you will be sending it too is probably a person that has also been duped.

[Gwaihir]

Interesting video, but I'm missing the connection. This guy isn't asking for shipping to a US middle man, he's just specifying a shipping company. He probably does so because he knows it has good rates from the US to him. I can imagine such companies aren't common when it comes to such a remote location.

Anyway, a money order with for example Western Union is a very easy way out.

[thecoalman]

And the company contact for the shipping is.... drum roll please.... fasttrackshippinginc[at]fastermail.com Could be anyone, adds legitimacy too if the they are paying for the shipping.

Not sure what fastermail.com is but it looks like a email forwarder by the homepage.

I saw that report on TV a while ago so I don't remember the specifics, does it require a middle man?

--------------

Edit: ooooooh I just had devious idea, send the link for that video to the shipping company contact

[Pawel Kowalski]

Well after he was asked for the money order he replied that he was upset we didnt want to do business with him and "cansieled" the order (an order that never took place).

And just for kicks we called fedex and believe it or not the address he sent us is actually real. Alaska AVE in Ghana, who'd thunk it.

[Ron]

heh. good catch.

[the_ancient]

I don't understand that, T_A. IF he gets approval from the card company, and assuming he calles the issuer and double checks with them, why is it his risk?

because the merchant still holds 100% of the liability even if the charge is "authorized"

[Connie]

The burden of proof is always on the merchant. Shipping to a valid address means nothing. Shipping to a valid address just means the scammer got his order for nothing in the end. The merchant is out the money, normally the shipping cost, and the merchandise.

Africa is a source of a lot of scams.

Was this order a scam? Maybe. Maybe not. I would rather be safe than sorry. Since the so called customer became upset when requested to pay by money order indicates to me it was probably a scam.