Suspicious Order Inqury

chipjchipj Registered Users Posts: 149 Major grins
edited July 5, 2012 in SmugMug Pro Sales Support
Hey Everyone,

I received an email inquiry today that seems a bit odd to me. The customer first wanted to know if I could ship internationally. I told them not at this time. They were also very interested in paying only via credit card.

I told them that I could ship overseas on my own and setup a invoice for them that could be paid via PayPal by credit card, but their response was:
"let me choose order i want and i can only pay with credit card and i will use my freight forwarder to come for pick up after my payment clear."

Seems to me I've seen some sort of scam that involves shipping arranged by the receiver. Does this sound like a legit concern on my part? Thanks...

Comments

  • denisegoldbergdenisegoldberg Administrators Posts: 14,372 moderator
    edited July 2, 2012
    chipj wrote: »
    I received an email inquiry today that seems a bit odd to me. The customer first wanted to know if I could ship internationally. I told them not at this time. They were also very interested in paying only via credit card.

    I told them that I could ship overseas on my own and setup a invoice for them that could be paid via PayPal by credit card, but their response was:
    "let me choose order i want and i can only pay with credit card and i will use my freight forwarder to come for pick up after my payment clear."

    I agree that their request to use a freight forwarder sounds really odd.

    It looks like you have a Smug account, so why can't they just order from your site? Smug does ship internationally although there are some countries that aren't in the ship to list. Here's the help page listing the countries they ship to - http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/87663.

    --- Denise
  • Art ScottArt Scott Registered Users Posts: 8,959 Major grins
    edited July 2, 2012
    I would ask them what city and country they are in....as you need that any way to charge for shipping......as a matter of fact I would ask for their name and address to give an estimate for shipping...if they are not willing to divulge that then let it go. that way you can decide if you can do business with in that country.....Also tell them that you ONLY ACCEPT CC's THRU PAYPAL ...... This will stop a lot of scammers dead in their tracks.
    "Genuine Fractals was, is and will always be the best solution for enlarging digital photos." ....Vincent Versace ... ... COPYRIGHT YOUR WORK ONLINE ... ... My Website

  • chipjchipj Registered Users Posts: 149 Major grins
    edited July 2, 2012
    I plead ingnorance to the shipping question. I have not had an international order yet, but assumed this was the case because those outside of the U.S. have complained that they didn't have a way to process and ship to non-US country. I guess I'll have to look into this more.

    In any regard, I'll tell the prospective client that I can ship to their country (based on the list you provided) and see what happens.
    Thanks.
    I agree that their request to use a freight forwarder sounds really odd.

    It looks like you have a Smug account, so why can't they just order from your site? Smug does ship internationally although there are some countries that aren't in the ship to list. Here's the help page listing the countries they ship to - http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/87663.

    --- Denise
  • AndyAndy Registered Users Posts: 50,016 Major grins
    edited July 5, 2012
    chipj wrote: »
    I plead ingnorance to the shipping question. I have not had an international order yet, but assumed this was the case because those outside of the U.S. have complained that they didn't have a way to process and ship to non-US country. I guess I'll have to look into this more.

    In any regard, I'll tell the prospective client that I can ship to their country (based on the list you provided) and see what happens.
    Thanks.

    We've been shipping photos to hundreds of countries for many years now. That's the easy and safe way, use our shopping cart thumb.gif
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