Thursday, July 9, 2009

Warning to others...Please read

I have been meaning to blog about this but was initially was reluctant as I admit felt a bit stupid.
The other week I received an email from a man called David Handerson from Korea requesting a wholesale order. He was from Korea. Having dealt with Asian customers and companies, doing importing with them I didn't think twice about it. Anyway I thought it was my lucky day & he ordered a $1000 wholesale order. Yippee!!

He requested I use his choice of shipping company "Errandex" as he said the product may get lost in transit as his apartment/working space was hard to find. I was fine with that too, as I understood that definitely happens from experience.
;As the communication continued a few things alarmed me;
1. When I googled "Erranex" the website advised it was dangerous. I wanted to check that as I wanted to see their Aust office locations so i could drop order off. When I asked where they were I was told "Southern Australia"!!!
2. He would only provide a credit card, and ignored all Pay Pal requests, and insisted I had to transact it 3 times at $299 a time.
3. The quote from his shipping company I received came to a total of AUD$498, & I quoted AUD$100 through Australia Post.
4. Lastly he wanted me to pay for shipping initially into "Western Union Money" which I also learned is a foreign exchange fund & he would pay money back to me via credit card payments.
Very strange hey???
I called my cousin who is a financial controller for a huge Australian company & obviously great with figures, international transactions & so forth. She said it sounded like I was being scammed & got me to google his email & the shipping companies email.
Well what do you know the first words that came up SCAM, SCAM, SCAM & warnings from others who had fallen victim.
To put it in a nutshell his intentions where as my cousin explained;

"There was no order. I would have transacted payment which in turn I would have lost as it was obviously a stolen credit card. Then before I found that it was stolen he would have claimed he didn't receive goods & would have been able to make a claim of some sort which would have been financially crucifying as I would have had to reimburse him, then get copped with paying back the money to the stolen credit card. So not only would I have had to pay money back I would have lost $1000 worth of stock at wholesale as we all know is a HELL of a lot, of not just money but time & effort".

I tried to make that as short as possible but wanted to let you all be aware of this as it's very exciting to get a wholesale order request. I know for sure I was thrilled, & spending the money in my mind before I had received it.

Just be cautious people.
xx

5 comments:

Melinda @ Here We Go Loopy Lou said...

Good information to have. You hear so many scams these days, but who would have thought we as designers/crafters would be targeted. Goodness me.

Finki said...

Thanks for the heads up. It's so easy to click in to business mode and just try to please a customer. It's shitty when people try to take advantage that.
Don't feel stupid. I would have done the same thing.

Lou said...

Thankyou so much for sharing. I agree that I would have been sucked in too!

Ange said...

oh kylie sorry this has happened to you!

Melanie @ Whimsical Creations said...

That is scary!

Thank you for sharing.