Online buyer wire transfer scam?

jakdublin

Looking to see if the Boards.ie oracle can help with this. My mrs has a shop on Etsy (like eBay for craft workers) and a buyer from India wants to buy 10 items worth about €600 wholesale for his bricks and mortar shop. Having negotiated a 20% discount he now wants to send her a purchase order and for her to send him an invoice (he'll tell her how to format the invoice) and then he wants to wire the money to her bank account. I don't think she should give out bank account details but he says he can't do PayPal and this is how he does business. How would the scam work, if it is a scam?

keithclancy

As long as its an electronic transfer and its received on your side I can't see how its a scam

In fact in other countries this is the norm (Germany especially)

finnteme

keithclancy wrote: »

As long as its an electronic transfer and its received on your side I can't see how its a scam

In fact in other countries this is the norm (Germany especially)

They can always send you extra moneye by "mistake" and then demand you to send it back to them.. and the extra money usually is not so legal..

Not suggesting that this is the case here though


http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/moneytransferrequests

Transferring money for someone else
If you agree to transfer money for someone you don’t know, you let scammers use your bank account to ‘launder’ their dirty money. This puts you and your money in the firing line.

Cheque overpayment scams
You are sent a cheque for something you have sold, but it is for more than the amount agreed. The scammer hopes you will refund the extra money before you notice that their cheque has bounced

silentrust

finnteme wrote: »

They can always send you extra moneye by "mistake" and then demand you to send it back to them.. and the extra money usually is not so legal..

Not suggesting that this is the case here though


http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/moneytransferrequests

Transferring money for someone else
If you agree to transfer money for someone you don’t know, you let scammers use your bank account to ‘launder’ their dirty money. This puts you and your money in the firing line.

Cheque overpayment scams
You are sent a cheque for something you have sold, but it is for more than the amount agreed. The scammer hopes you will refund the extra money before you notice that their cheque has bounced

I feel a bit sorry for honest users in India as Paypal doesn't have much truck with them due to the high level of fraud.

It's your decision. What I can tell you from my experience with eBay is that if the money is stolen it will be debited from your account by the bank at a later date, typically it takes them 4-5 weeks to catch on.

Can you say anything more about your wife's business? Is it something you couldn't buy in India easily?

silentrust

jakdublin wrote: »

Looking to see if the Boards.ie oracle can help with this. My mrs has a shop on Etsy (like eBay for craft workers) and a buyer from India wants to buy 10 items worth about €600 wholesale for his bricks and mortar shop. Having negotiated a 20% discount he now wants to send her a purchase order and for her to send him an invoice (he'll tell her how to format the invoice) and then he wants to wire the money to her bank account. I don't think she should give out bank account details but he says he can't do PayPal and this is how he does business. How would the scam work, if it is a scam?

To answer your earlier question - the risk in giving out your account details is fairly low but it can be of use to people committing identify fraud.

The earlier poster mentioned advance fee fraud whereby stolen funds are sometimes wired to the account, usually for an amount greater than that was asked and you are asked to send the difference to the scam artist by a different method e.g Western Union.

If your wife isn't set up for phone banking and the scam artist is a woman or can make use of one, they might be able to persuade the bank to provide balance information but it's highly unlikely they could get their hands on actual cash.

The worst case scenario when handing over account details is usually people setting up direct debts without your permission!

discombobulate

Its generally safer receiving the money into your bank account than by Paypal as there's no chance of them setting up a not-as-described case or anything similar. When I was a Powerseller on eBay i'd take a bank transfer before Paypal any time I had a chance as you'll save 3% on fees also.

silentrust

discombobulate wrote: »

Its generally safer receiving the money into your bank account than by Paypal as there's no chance of them setting up a not-as-described case or anything similar. When I was a Powerseller on eBay i'd take a bank transfer before Paypal any time I had a chance as you'll save 3% on fees also.

Well said discom... dicombob... dis... whatever. :-)

jakdublin

Thanks for the answers guys. Yeah, I thought about the overpayment scam. It's these clutch bags my mrs sells. Not really exclusive, but original as they're hand made. The buyer is female and she seems to be connected with this website, but they don't sell bags, just beauty products. We're just puzzled by it and not 100 per cent sure if we should go ahead.

silentrust

jakdublin wrote: »

Thanks for the answers guys. Yeah, I thought about the overpayment scam. It's these clutch bags my mrs sells. Not really exclusive, but original as they're hand made. The buyer is female and she seems to be connected with this website, but they don't sell bags, just beauty products. We're just puzzled by it and not 100 per cent sure if we should go ahead.

Jak, I know this is a little off topic but these are amazing, your wife really has a gift! I only discovered Etsy recently when trying to get some ideas for soap making, glad to see they're going strong.

Tried to do a little doxing on your girl in India - the website was registered in the name of one Elvera Mehra in Delhi according to whois.org - She seems to have an interest in painting her work was even show at an art gallery in Delhi a few years back.

About a year ago apparently she felt a pressing need to start Saint Pure which deals as you say in quality skincare products.

She seems to be a real person if LinkedIN and Facebook are anything to go by.

I did see she registered SaintPure.com with the e-mail address elveramehra@gmail.com - if this is the same e-mail address from which she has been contacting your wife, it's probably the same person.

Hope this helps,

ST

jakdublin

silentrust wrote: »

Jak, I know this is a little off topic but these are amazing, your wife really has a gift! I only discovered Etsy recently when trying to get some ideas for soap making, glad to see they're going strong.

Thanks for that. My mrs is chuffed you like them. She really does put her heart and soul into them and while they sell great online, it's difficult to get them onto the Irish bricks and mortar market.

Thanks for the research too! That's more than I came up with. It does like she's a real person so maybe we'll check her out more and take it from there.

silentrust

jakdublin wrote: »

Thanks for that. My mrs is chuffed you like them. She really does put her heart and soul into them and while they sell great online, it's difficult to get them onto the Irish bricks and mortar market.

Thanks for the research too! That's more than I came up with. It does like she's a real person so maybe we'll check her out more and take it from there.

Glad to see your wife's industry is paying off, I really admire creative people, used to work in Intellectual Property so it's a subject close to my heart - hope it all works out for you both, best of luck.

keithclancy

finnteme wrote: »

They can always send you extra moneye by "mistake" and then demand you to send it back to them.. and the extra money usually is not so legal..

Not suggesting that this is the case here though


http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/tag/moneytransferrequests

Transferring money for someone else
If you agree to transfer money for someone you don’t know, you let scammers use your bank account to ‘launder’ their dirty money. This puts you and your money in the firing line.

Cheque overpayment scams
You are sent a cheque for something you have sold, but it is for more than the amount agreed. The scammer hopes you will refund the extra money before you notice that their cheque has bounced

Those scams don't involve electronic wire transfer (Bank to Bank)

These are forged bank draft scams.

Its not even possible to cash a locally written check from India.

The receiving too much money via Bank Draft scam is well known (The Bank Draft is forged and even though the money appears in your account, once the bank realises this its gone again)

chopsey

hi,

great product by the way, great to see in this day and age.

i've bought and sold online for a while and if i was you i would have absolutely no problem in doing this deal. you provide them with your IBAN number and that is it the money can only go one way. if you want to make it safer you could speak to your bank and let them know to be aware of the transaction.

you always have to make sure that the package is signed for at the other end to leave no room for come back other than to come back for more product.

best of luck and i hope this is the first of many such transactions for your very talented wife.

jakdublin

Well, the update is (and big thanks to Silenttrust) is that we've checked her out a bit more and got some reassurance. The products will be picked up by DHL so there shouldn't be any problem with delivery. Looks like the mrs will be going ahead after all, but the buyer is now looking for a bigger discount which may scupper the deal. Still, it's been a learning experience at the very least. Thanks everybody for the feedback. I'll post here again to let you know if the deal goes ahead or not.