[RE-wrenches] Credit Card Fraud - Again

[Jay Farooque]

I have been getting these e-mails for a while as well!
 


--- On Fri, 5/8/09, Jeff Yago <jryago at netscape.com> wrote:


From: Jeff Yago <jryago at netscape.com>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Credit Card Fraud - Again
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Date: Friday, May 8, 2009, 4:36 PM


I know this has been discussed here a few times in the past but now there is a new twist.

Our web site includes a solar "store" with some limited products of smaller solar items just for those not yet ready to contract a full size system. Anyway, we recently received a large number of internet orders for unusual quantities or combinations of equipment that did not make any sense. For example, one guy asked for several of each size solar pump and modules.  Another ordered 60 solar charge controllers at a cost of over $5,000.00 which makes no sense since we are a retail outlet. If I was going to order 60 charge controllers, I would order from a distributor at a much lower quantity discount. The thing is, ALL of these credit card purchases went through, but they all had a different shipping address from the card holders address. Many of the credit card holders were women, but the shipping address was to a man in another state.

We contacted most of these card holders after tracking them down and none of them knew somebody was ordering high dollar solar equipment with their credit cards which were still valid. We then contacted the police departments for those cities where the shipping addresses were located. We were asked to ship an empty box full of wood blocks to the address given and they set up sting operations. These crooks usually give the address of some unknown homeowner, then they track the UPS shipment on line. When they see the package will be shipped at a specific day and time frame, they will hang around that neighborhood and when they see the UPS truck they will act like they are just coming out of the house at that address and take the package from the driver.

In my case, all of the addresses were UPS shipping and mail box centers, and when the person did not show up that day the police checked with the UPS center and found they had instructions to re-ship to another address. While the police were there, several more high dollar packages showed up for the same guy I was shipping to, but these stores really did ship valuable merchandise as they did not catch the bogus orders.

After contacting these other vendors and using internet tracking procedures, the actual buyer who placed all the orders using stolen credit cards was located in the Muslim country of Mali, located in southern Africa.   I was advised that these guys can "buy" hundreds of stolen credit card numbers off other internet sites and that solar equipment is a prime target since these can be easily sold in most developing countries where there is limited or no utility power lines.

Hope this post helps others avoid getting stung.

Jeff Yago

_____________________________________________________________
Netscape.  Just the Net You Need.
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org




      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20090508/27897669/attachment-0004.html>