As an international sales for nearly ten years, I heard several scam money stories happened on my friends who were also international sales. I would like to share these stories to advise people how to discern the cheat tricks. 1) Register similar email address. One of my friend named Carol(assumed name) worked in a watch company, she always using a Yahoo email address, which is Carolzhang@yahoo.com.cn, nickname(which will be showed as sender in receiver’s email) is Carol- A company, and via this email contact her customer Paul in France. She was frightened one day because she received the Paul’s calling “why you didn’t delivery my purchased watches after I paid the balance for two weeks.” The fact is, Carol never asked the Paul arrange the balance, the watches neither finished. So Carol said she never ask Paul arrange the balance, why he paid the balance, in the meanwhile she checked they did not receive the payment. Paul sent the bank slip to Carol, the amount is the same as balance, but the account name is another person, not Carol’s boss name. She checked the emails which Paul transferred to her too, she found several emails were not wrote by her, the style of email is the same as her, and in one emails said “Dear Paul, the men’s watches you ordered have finished, please kindly arrange the balance to this account as below, because need to control the amount for each account per year, we have to use another account. We will delivery them to you as soon as receive the payment.” This email was not sent by Carol, after carefully checked the email, she found the reason, the cheater registered an email address which is Carol.zhang@yahoo.com.cn, and posed as Carol contact with Paul for a long time. Carol called the police, but has not gotten the money back still now, the cheater was not lived in China. So, as a buyer, you must attention the detailed true email address, not look the nickname(the above two email addresses with the same nickname ‘Carol-A company’), such as other similar email address, Caroizhang@yahoo.com.cn, Carolzhamg@yahoo.com.cn, carolzhang_@yahoo.com.cn , carollzhang@yahoo.com.cn etc. You must watch carefully. 2) Steal the email. For example, the cheater gang stole the hotmail password of Steve, the cheater always online and received the emails form customer earlier than Steve, so the cheater received the entire emails form customer and replied posing as Steve, then delete the important emails, and make up some reasons told the customer that they changed bank account. You know what will happen in coming days. Or some cheater said “I found this hotmail is not safe enough, it seems someone has known the password, I changed to use Gmail, my new email address is steve@gmail.com, do not trust the emails form hotmail any longer.” And customer will ignore the hotmail email form Steve, it’s really a thief crying "Stop thief". 3) Register similar email addresses for both supplier and customer. For example, the supplier’s email is carolzhang@yahoo.com.cn, the customer’s email is Cindym@hotmail.com, the cheater registered a similar email posing carol which is carolzhamg@yahoo.com.cn contact with customer, and also registered Cindym.@hotmail.com posing Cindy contact with supplier. The cheater received the true emails form both supplier and customer but reply the false information with similar email address. You know, another cheat will happen. Of course, the cheaters will change tricks all the time, so it’s very important for buyers careful enough, I would like to share some methods to solve at this problem. 1. Did not trust the change information, such as emails said we will change email address, we will change sales, we will change tell and fax no, especially said change bank account. Must confirm any change by both tell, fax, video chat, and the third party etc. The bank account name should be the same as company name. For example, my company name is Bonyuan Development Co., LTD, our bank account name is must be Bonyuan Development Co., LTD, it will be still our company name as account name if we want open another bank account someday. It won’t be use another company name as our account name. The account name must be the same, but this means company account, not means personal account because there are same personal name. 2. It’s better to use a company email address and company’s bank account, not private email or private account. And carefully attention on the email address if it’s a personal email address, it’s more safe call the supplier firstly to make a confirmation or notice before transfer the money. 3. Get the real IP address of the cheater, and write to the cheater return back to money or ask the help form police. But this will be not easy, many cheaters are good at computer and network, even are international cheat gang with Hackers. It’s not easy to solve at international crime now. 4. Ask for the police, and ask the help to International Bankers Association together with police’s certificate, or ask the police accompany with you to there. Tell them what’s happened and ask for freeze the money firstly at least, then get back the money. 5. Confirm any change via all the available way, do not trust only by received an email or a fax or a call. You can get the true telephone or fax number form the supplier’s official website, then call back and send a fax to confirm, and video chat. Transfer the bank slip to supplier as soon as possible, ask the supplier check whether the account is correct. And the buyer also has time to get back the money if not correct. So, in this side, send the bank slip to supplier is also good for buyer. We, Bonyuan Development Co., Ltd (www.bonyuan.com, a professional watches manufacturer), will still pay attention on the new cheat tricks, and will advise to public how to aware the new cheat.
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cheaters, company account, international business,
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