E-Commerce Internet Criminals. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t shoot ‘em.
Back in March we shipped a simple order of straps to Oregon City, OR. The order total was only $36.50, but that’s not the point. It’s principle. E-Commerce internet criminals need to be taken down.
Over the last 22 years we’ve been designing, selling, manufacturing and shipping many custom cargo management based products for the automotive aftermarket including cargo nets, straps, boxes, racks and the like. And in that 22 years, we’ve got a pretty good track record when it comes to keeping our company free from fraud and e-commerce internet criminals. But these days, it’s almost impossible to get around it. Sooner or later, you’re gonna pay. I’d say I’ve probably lost, over the last 22 years in business, only about $1500.00 because of fraud in one form or another. Not bad that’s only about $70/year. But keep in mind that I’m an experienced professional and I can smell criminals a mile away and I’ve thwarted a lot of attempts, in my own business and others.
To give you a bit of context, in our 22 years of doing this, we’ve had to close down our business checking account about 4 times and open another due to a hack or a stolen credit card used by e-commerce internet criminals. Now, if you shut down your business bank account, that’s only the beginning. Any auto payments for subscriptions, etc…need to be updated to the new account info. Then, you need to change your billing info with all your vendors as they’ll have the old bank info on file. It doesn’t sound too bad, but it’s a lot of work. You could have hundreds or even thousands of vendors and other institutions you need to change your billing information with.
Running an internet based business in conjunction with a major bank is a risky situation. You always have to be prepared for a chargeback on your account when the bank literally doesn’t even tell you something illegal has transpired, you just have to deal with it and they take the money. You better double check your orders. Billing address, shipping address and email should all match. You might want to contact your customer by phone or email just to make sure they’re legit, it helps.
In this particular case, when the charge was authorized, the address, zip AND the three digit card code matched. However, the email address was not consistent with the names on the billing and shipping (which were different as well) and I should have caught on to that. However, given the fact that the billing address and shipping address, although different, were both from Oregon City, OR, so I didn’t think anything of it. Regardless, even though it was only a $36.50 order, I should have seen the signs right in front of me. But it had been awhile since I’d been ripped off, so I was kind of on a roll so to speak of just processing orders for many many months and ‘forgot’ about the e-commerce internet criminals who lie in wait.
The funny thing about this one was that we looked up the billing and shipping addresses in Oregon and they were both multi-million dollar homes. Now, we shipped those straps to the shipping address and it was delivered via USPS, probably put in a post box or mailbox. That means somebody at that address received that product. Or, it’s possible, that if they use a mailbox, it was stolen by somebody using their address as a destination address which they rob from time to time. Seems unlikely. So, it is possible, based on this information, that whomever lives at that house is possibly using stolen credit cards and shipping everything they order there and it was just consequential that the billing and shipping addresses were from the same city and state.
We filed a claim with the bank, but I was told they don’t use time or resources to investigate any claim under a certain amount of money, so I’m SOL there. However, we are also contacting the local police department in Oregon City to let them know that whomever lives at that multi-million dollar residence is potentially receiving and warehousing stolen goods.
Moral of the story is this. Keep your security settings on your gateway strong and look for anomalies in the information you get on the order and don’t be afraid to pick up the phone or email your customer for verification. It could save you hundreds even thousands of dollars. And, it will keep you and the banks on top of e-commerce internet criminals.
Enjoy your day and enjoy your e-commerce business~!!!
CargoCatch Current
