Can Someone Pleas Explain The Banner Scam?

[oldgoatroper]

The OP stated that both the product AND the shipping were paid for. That being the case why would you pay for the shipping if it's already paid?

The point in all scams of this sort, ordering products, winning some sort of lottery or contest, or whatever, is to get you to to dip into your own pouch and shell out for something. Be it a 'fee' you pay up front in order to collect vast lottery winnings or an inheritance, remitting an over payment from a bogus check, something. In the scenario described by the OP none of these or their infinite variations seem to apply. Merely paying with a fraudulent credit card, if the scam works, gains the operator nothing more than some free product.

Where's the payoff to the scammer here?

shipping is paid to the sign company, who then is supposed to pay the "shipping company" usually with cash or some form of payment that is not reversible.

 

[phototec]

You can call your merchant services company and report suspected fraud. They will Trace the card to see if it's stolen.

YES DO THIS RIGHT AWAY!

 

[DerbyCitySignGuy]

How does this benefit the guy with the stolen card? The credit back on the card balances the debit so all that's gained, at best, is someone gets some free merchandise.

This scam has been around a while. I've been dealing with it for over 10 years.

The scammer uses a stolen credit card(s), so it WILL be charged back at some point. If you make $10,000 worth of banners, you're out the cost of the materials and labor, which you may or may not get back.

The scammer has a fake freight company. The money that YOU pay that company goes straight to the scammer. You pay them with a cash or a cashier's check. That's money you will never see again that goes straight into the scammer's hands. That's what the scam is all about, that's what the scammer is after.

 

[bob]

shipping is paid to the sign company, who then is supposed to pay the "shipping company" usually with cash or some form of payment that is not reversible.

Ah, I get it. Seems like a lot of bother for not a whole hell of a lot of money. Moreover why would any sane person operate what amounts to a check cashing service for some anonymous being at the other end of an unsolicited email. Not in this shop. If some client wants me to pay his shipping agent then that client tenders the instrument of payment, not me.

For this scam to work requires the services of at least two idiots. One being the idiot that goes along with it, the other being the idiot that thinks that something this stupid could actually work.

 

[chester215]

If you want to have a little fun go along with the scam ( I wouldn't run the credit card) for a while and see what happens.
You can always come up with excuses for delays in production and in the end tell them the credit card # came back as bad.
A few years ago i did this when selling an atv on craigslist.
2 different scammers sent me checks which were obviously fakes from Canada.
I think one was even sent to me via fedex.
When it came time to ship it I told them their checks bounced.
One even sent another fake check.

 

[Bly]

You know it's a scam immediately when they say they don't care about the price.. just get them done quickly.
And they are always overseas.

 

[Mosh]

Kind Sir, I will not be scam artist, I will pleasantly like to order 500 banners "GOD BLESS" in red. Most kind sir I will be using our
own shipper, if you please. What payment type do you be accepting? Your Friend ~ Katuna Goomonga.

 

[mmblarg]

We had scammers that didn't even have the card - messed with them for 5 days straight before he got fed up and stopped responding. I continually told the guy we needed half down on large orders (not a lie) but the guy insisted he needed the final shipping information so he could set up the pick up through his company before giving us payment. The final straw for him was when I told him that we measured, precut, and weighed all the material for his shipping information and that we were ready for the credit card to start printing. He went silent. By this time, we had already extracted his IP address from his e-mail and knew he was in Nigeria despite saying he was from New York.

Before I started working at this company, the owners messed with another scammer using the same ploy and told them the cost of the banners was over $1,000,000. The scammers responded with "great! Please print and tell me when ready"

 

[BingoBrewster]

I am very glad to see this thread as it confirms I dodged a bullet 6 months ago.

I am in Spain, and got an email request from a quote for a few thousand Euro worth of banner. The address of the company was London
After receiving the quote they got back to me asking me to send a shipping quote to the Dominican Republic(?)

It was at this point I became suspicious and decided not to answer. Its a hard decision because I'm a one man band and dont get too many orders of that size.

Thanks OP!

 

[Malardalensbildekor]

Hi guys i had the same problem in Sweden, best way to stop getting this problems is to always take pay upfront, not via creditcards, a real bank deposit to your bankaccount or let them pay with western union, world remit or something like this, once you have the money in your account or in your hand, then start production.

 

[TheSnowman]

They also normally type like a 1st grader would. Grammar is horrible, broken sentences, etc. I suppose in some parts of the country this would be a little harder to filter out, but in my small town, when I get these, I know I'm not landing some massive order randomly from New York or any other large city. I've had probably one a year for the last 10 years. I normally just tell them to go get a job like the rest of us and quit thinking we're an industry of idiots like the moron's they're hanging out with.

We had one scam guy tell my grandparents they had won like $200,000 or something, and of course they liked the sound of that and trust anyone, so they gave him way too much info and banking information, and we ended up having to intercept the calls for my grandparents for like two weeks because the guy kept harassing them. We ended up blowing a whistle really loud into the phone each time he kept calling and it ended after about 2 times of that. Never seen my dad that furious. He actually went to a location that the guy said he would meet him to call him out. I informed he was in AbuDahbi and not going to meet him, but the whole story is still nuts all the crap they'll make up to try and make a few bucks.

 

[CanuckSigns]

Easiest way to get them to stop, tell them tat since the order is so large, you would be happy to ship the order for free to anywhere in the world via your fedex account, watch them try to explain why they would rather pay some no name shipping company to deliver it.

 

[HWPhilly]

Yep, I've gotten contacted a couple times through our site's webform by someone trying to pull this scam on us. I know better, but lots of people don't. Don't fall for it!