New scams cropping up across midstate
Buyers and sellers should beware according to the Middle Tennessee Better Business Bureau as several costly scams have emerged recently in the midstate.
Most recently raising an alert with the BBB is a credit card scam directed at business owners. According to Beth Furbush of the middle Tennessee chapter of the BBB, the recent scam involved a Lebanon electronic and appliance store owner who received an order via a telephone relay operator connected via the Internet. The relay system is often used by deaf and hearing impaired persons to make calls.
The person placing the order to his shop, for about $400 in merchandise, submitted a credit card number and told the owner it was important the order be shipped the same day to an overseas address. Feeling the situation wasn’t right, the owner did a search for the customer’s reported address in California and found the address did not exist. He then contacted the BBB and discovered the customer was part of a offshore scam which operates out of Canada and Nigeria.
Furbush said the caution taken by the business owner saved him $400 in merchandise which would have never been paid for. Given the scam, the BBB suggests owners beware of phone orders through the relay system by way of the Internet since such calls are almost impossible to track down. The bureau also says merchants who are suspicious of orders should contact the credit card companies directly or the BBB since the cards could be stolen, and not yet reported stolen, thereby causing problems for the retailer once the rightful owner challenges the charges when they later appear on his or her bill. Furbush said instances of the scam have been reported across the country, from Texas to Kentucky.
The BBB is also warning persons who are selling cars over the Internet or closing orders over the telephone to beware. The scam works by a prospective customer, purchasing a $10,000 car, to send a check for $5,000 over the amount. The buyer then calls and asks the seller to wire him back the extra $5,000 he overpaid. Then, the buyer never appears to collect the car and it is later determined the check for $15,000 is worthless, thereby costing the seller $5,000.
Investigators say the scam is popular because it can target a lot of people. If the scam artist is able to get 10 of 1,000 prospective victims to go along with the con, then the criminal can make $50,000. There are several variations of this scam.
The BBB and U.S. Secret Service is urging persons conducting such business to hold the checks until they clear before sending a product or money. They remind sellers that cashier’s checks and money orders can also be counterfeit.