Fake Shipping Scam
7th April, 2010
I’ve been getting a few of these types of emails in my in-box. They used to arrive once in a while but lately it’s been a few times a week…
*****
Hello Sales Manager,
My Name is Catherine Smith Am the sales Representative of Smith Inc Limited in Spain and I will like to order for some item in your store and also our company registration # PJ/18471, with POPULAR SHIPPING AGENCY in spain.The shipping’s agent representative will come to you for the pick up of the order from the company to our store in Japan So they will handle the shipment for us and also Our company credit card account will be the term of payment.
So get back to me with your company information and website.
Regards,
Catherine.
*****
Good day!
I am interested in purchasing some items from your company and would like to know if you accept credit cards as a medium of payment before i send my request. As soon as my payment is accepted I will arrange my shipping
agent to come and pick-up my goods.
Please kindly get back to me as soon as possible.
Thank you.
Best Regards
CEO. Michael Williams
*****
Sales,
I Annie Lennon, I will like to order some of your products and I will want it shipped to our place as follows :
Shipping Address:
200 Miller Street. City,
North Sydney,Australia NSW 2026
So i hope to hear from you soon regarding my inquiry and to know where i can view your products you have presently in stock and if there is any special pricing i need to know about. Lastly regarding payment i will be sending you my credit card to charge for my order to avoid delays but can you let me know the type of credit cards you accept?
I hope to hear from you as soon as possible.
Regards.
Annie
*****
They look legit enough but yet little warning bells always go off in my head when I see one of these. Thank goodness I always follow up each inquiry with a bit of homework. I google up the company name, the CEO name and the shipping company name. If none of them are legit, I just ignore them and toss the email in my trash bin.
Lately though, these types of emails are arriving more frequently, so I did a bit of sleuthing yesterday and found this article in regards.
I’m REALLY thankful for the internet and the folks who take time to post articles to warn others about scammers. It’s scary that scammers have found a way to specifically target small businesses! Like it isn’t tough enough running your own business, now you gotta worry about the validity of every sales lead that comes your way?
I know though that there is a special place in hell for these horrible people. Hopefully it’s a place where the sun never shines, where bed bugs always bite and their inbox is always inundated with spam.
** Updated list of fake shipping scams are listed here **
Categories: business advice.
Tags: email spoofing, fake shipping scam, fake wholeale order scam, small business advice, spam alert.
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July 30th, 2010 at 10:49 am
Hi AMy
Was the above from “Annie Lennon” In Australia a scam or legit? I have just been contacted by her in a similar vein.
Simon
July 30th, 2010 at 11:09 am
Hi Simon,
Total scam! I’ve gotten so may that I have it down to a science. Basically I look for the following things:
1) They want to use their own shipping company to ship to some remote location.
2) “Do you accept credit card payment”
3) Always some weird spacing between words and sentences and/or dodgy grammar or spelling.
4) They need the product RIGHT NOW!
Any one of those wouldn’t send red flags but if combined in one email, watch out!
Just found another blog regarding spammers (http://scamandeggs.blogspot.com/2009/04/mail-order.html). Someone left this comment:
“I received an email from a customer Annie Lennon, NSW, Australia with interest in our product. Claimed in dire need of goods to be shipped asap via her carrier of which we needed to charge her credit card with transportation charges & forward to carrier in advance so pick up would be secured (via wire transfer)…we were duped about 1800.00 USD & able to cancel a second transfer once credit card company called us with fraud alert. We were able to save 1200.00 USD…Glad this site popped up!!! Saved me lots of time & energy!”
Hope that helps
Amy
August 18th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Our company has been targeted by the Catherine Smith scam…we didn’t know at first, but now we are on to it. Watch out for over seas companies wanting to order product.
August 26th, 2010 at 8:11 pm
I am so glad I found this website! One of those scams posted has been in contact with me. I thought it was suspicious but could not find out anything online. Thanks for putting this info online. Saved a lot of time and money!!
June 7th, 2011 at 3:33 pm
I receive many, many of these each day. Here is a current version of one:
Hello,
Letter of purchase from Ray Light Store for some product at your store.
I want you to provide me price list on available product in stock and your website, If you can not attach price list let me have you website to send my mail orders to you and concerning the shipment of these order, I know there are lots of restrictions making it hard or even impossible for you to sell and get the order shipped out of the country, but there is a logistics agency which am registered with.
The shipping agent representative in the country will come and pick up the order from the country to me in Cyprus. Soon as payment is done with you which happen to be our company credit card as a mode of payment, I will make arrangement for the order to be picked up from your store.
Can we proceed to the business ?
Note:- let us read from you whenever you get to read order request.
Ray Light Store
85, Apostolou Varanava Street
CYPRUS - 3065 Limassol
+357(0)7670 - 4005