Customer authenticity

[Chaz2018]

Hi I wonder if anyone has any experience of this. I have had a couple of people from abroad contact my website asking to order large quanities of items amounting to thousands of pounds. The first one is based in Croatia. When I contacted them with a quote for their order they have stated that they would use a shipping company that they have used before and provided an email contact (<removed>). They asked me to contact the shipping company for a quote which I have done and have said once I invoice them they would arrange payment by credit card and that the shipping company would collect the parcels from me and deliver to them. I am concerned whether this is all a scam and they are going to do a reverse payment claiming the items haven’t been shipped. Is this something anyone else has experienced before? What would be your advice when shipping abroad like this? Many thanks in advance for your help.

[kernowlass · Accepted solution]

@Chaz2018

For that amount of money? I wouldn't.

However you would need to read up on seller protection and then risk assess your transaction.

BUT READ THIS SCAM FIRST SO YOU ARE AWARE.

They encourage you to accept a 'direct' Paypal payment and may ask you to send the item internationally.
No funds or activity of the transaction shows in your Paypal account and any emails 'may' go into your junk or spam folders.

You will get/got a "fake" email that looks as though it is from paypal.....it isn't because they don't actually have a Paypal account and have no intention of paying you.
It will say the buyer has paid ...you won't have been paid.

The 'fake' paypal email will tell you that the buyer has paid for the item + shipping costs but you must send those shipping costs to the courier/ shipping agent via western union, moneygram or walmart etc BEFORE the funds are released to you.
They are not interested in the item, they just want the western union etc funds and you will never see money in your paypal balance.

They also 'sometimes' threaten legal action...have a laugh at that one and ignore it as its rubbish.

Paypal NEVER tell you to send an item before the payment is showing in your paypal account.
Paypal NEVER expect you to use a rival money transfer service eg Moneygram or Western Union etc.
Also their is no seller protection on paypal for any item that is collected by the buyer.

Delete any emails and ignore the scammers.