Any one who has not had an attempt of fraud perpetuated against them has never been online. Every person who sells online needs to take notes at some money preserving tips for beating the scammers. Newbies to the web are most vulnerable and the reasons these scammers abound and continue their trade is because there are always persons who are ignorant to their scams. Be aware, some of these scams are elaborate and would fool even the most discerning persons at time. Webmasters best defense is knowledge and keeping up to date with the latest scams and phishing techniques.
Tips to beat the scammers:
- Never ship based on payment in an email. Always check your account balance, whether by PayPal or your bank account.
- Never give your bank info out to strangers, especially when they seem particulary eager for it. Need I say anymore?
- Never ship until a cheque is clear and even then give it another day or two. Anyone paying with a cheque knows it is going to be a longer waiting period. Just remember to ste your policies clear on your website.
- Never be bullied into making rash selling or shipping decisions. Do not get stressed because of the urgency of your buyer. It is sometimes better to lose the sale. Most of these scams rely on your wanting to close the sale quickly.
- For auctions, do not deal off auction, you lose your seller protection and are often times left totally liable when the scam is perpetuated.
- Watch out for those who want to buy multiples of items especially if you are not a wholesale store. Especially vulnerable are electronics and games sites.
- Do not ship by buyers account. Scammers love to give you FedEx or UPS accounts for you to ship by. Do NOT do it. Ship by your account it is easier to keep accurate records and track of your shipment.
- Do not let greed for making more money than you advertised your good for to cause you to fall for their scams. Remember they will always dangle easy money before you. Most of the time if not all, the payment is fraudulent. Easy come, Easy go.
- Watch for the countries being ordered from. Check credit card country versus delivery address versus IP address. I recently had a IP address buyer in Monaco, using a credit card from Australia, shipping to a third party in the USA. 2checkout authorised the sale, but I got suspicious. I contacted both 2checkoout and the buyer. I asked the buyer for a copy of his id, while 2checkout asked for credit card statements. Needless to say the transaction was later declined and I saved myself over USD$1500.
- Look for tip offs. Mine was that they wanted six of one type of phone and it looked strange. Take the time to investigate your transactions thoroughly.
When all else fails, check the web to see if anybody else has had a similar problem to yours. You might be surprised. there are many sites out there dedicated to beating scammers.
Kimberly Valentine operates http://www.jamaicastores.com. She has been in business for over 10 years and shares her experiences through her blogs.
Feel free to link to this article or reproduce it in its entirety as long as the authors link remains intact.
| By | Kimberly Valentine |
