I have a brick and mortar shop with an online website and just finished a long discussion with my POS provider, they don't care. Here is the scam. See if you can figure it out.
This is the second occurrence of the same scenario. I received a high fraud risk order. The IP address is thousands of miles away, the buyer is not the receiver and the buyers phone number is a duplicate of the receiver's phone number. The email for buyer contact is fraudulent.
I contacted the receiver (the ship to individual). He says yes I ordered that product. When asked why the buyer was a different person, he doesn't know the buyer. The last four of the visa card number are not one of his. So he was asked where he purchased the item, answer is Ebay. I don't sell on ebay. When asked what he paid, $29. My product sells for $55, plus the shipping.
So some seller on ebay has sold this customer a product for $29, then turns around and buys it from me for $66 (product plus shipping) to be delivered to the guy who ordered it from him on ebay. Sound like a scam to you?
This is the second time the same thing has come up and its the same product that was purchased on Ebay in both instances.
See if this possibility works for you. I sell a product on Ebay for $29, I get the $29. I use a stolen credit card to purchase it from a legitimate store for shipment to the original buyer. The store confirms an order with the receiving customer and he confirms he ordered the product (but isn't asked where he ordered it from). Merchant ships, customer gets the item. The customer is happy, the ebay scammer gets $29 for doing nothing, ebay takes their sales cut, POS platform and the card processer take their fees. The merchant thinks he has a completed sale.
A month or so passes and the merchant gets hit with a fraudulent charge and charge back fee for a fraudulent purchase when the stolen credit card owner realizes he's been a victim and the bank tries to get their money back. The merchant is screwed out of the product, the sale, and the chargeback fee. Everybody is happy except the real victim, the merchant. I now know that the POS platform, card processing platform, the bank and Ebay do not care, because they are getting paid. So, run the high risk stuff to ground because they don't care.
I use a site called People Looker (its not expensive) to run down names, addresses, emails, phone numbers and then call to confirm (its not expensive). If I don't get a confirmation, the addresses or email are bogus, I refund the sale and never ship. If its a legitimate sell and they want it, they will call.
Also, my staff knows if things don't match, don't ship until I approve.
We need a class action lawsuit against Ebay because they are providing the venue for this fraudulent activity and profiting from it. When a product is sold as new for an amount less than the manufacturer sells it wholesale for, Ebay knows its a scam and is not doing due diligence.
