venusshoe (5/12/2009)

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Yep, got 'em, and I'm going to publish the name here just in case you run across her: Leona Ickes, in New Jersey. If she charges items from your store, don't ship them and refund her charges immediately! And then call your cc host to report them. I reported her to Propay and they were very grateful that I called them.

She kept purchasing men's fragrances from my store, a little bit more each time within a span of 10 days. When the second transacdtion came in from her, I was worried, but went through with the order. By the third transaction I was highly suspicious, and by the fourth transaction at nearly $400 in merchandise, I finally said "enough" and reported her. She would always use the same name, shipping address and out-of-service telephone number, but a different email address. When I went in to view my ProPay transactions, I could see that the last four digits of the cc number were different each time. Dead give away!

Yes I will lose out on those first couple of transactions when the real card owners finally catch up and report the fraudulent charges (I'd shipped them thinking they were legit at the time). Oh well, live and learn.

That's a first for me, and believe me I will be looking for patterns in every credit card transaction from now on. If I ever get two credit card orders close together from the same person or same address, I will be checking it out thoroughly before filling the order. I will probably call or email the buyer to confirm their order, and ask for a photocopy of a recent credit card statement and/or credit card (both sides).

What else should I do? Anyone else experience this before? What's a good, reasonable policy for checking on the validity of credit card purchases?

Argh!

K.