Fraud Alert - Estonia, Russia

NorthStarXO

NorthStarXO

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Nov 29, 2001
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Well this is a fine merry Christmas gift.....

I had a feeling it was coming so I'll post the details here:

Tatiana Voronova
Dobrovollskogo Str. 5 KV 58
RO, 344092 Russia
email: voronova@starline.ee

Tatiana Ignatieva
Sverdlova Street 132A
Azov
RO, 346740 Russia
email: ignatieva@starline.ee

The first one above we billed and shipped. DIdn't think anything of it as everything went through just fine. The second one came through a week after the first "received" their order. The first crediat card was declined. The second I called on but it was approved but I had a bad feeling because the customer's first names were the same so I called the issuing card company and was told it was a fraud. I alerted them to both orders. Apparently there is a HUGE credit card number mining ring in Estonia, Russia and I just got scammed for $197.00 I was lucky, it could've been more. We originally had a policy about not shipping to some of these "former" Soviet countries and Bahrain and a couple other since there is a LOT of fraud there but the CC went through so smooth and the email conversations with the customer were so nice I thought that maybe I was depriving REAL customers of product when they hadn't done anything wrong. Se la vie.

Anything from www.starline.ee email addresses seem to be flagged. I've had a couple and now I just tell them they have to wire cash.

I don't want to make it a policy to NOT ship to anyone overseas but I'll think about it here in the next few and make a policy change effective the first of the year.

**Edited for geography & typing correction. :D**
 
Bahrain is a country on the Arabian/Persian Gulf. I don't think they were a former Soviet republic. :)

Sorry to hear of your loss. It's too bad that crooks ruin it for everyone else.
 
Just for the record, Estonia isn't in Russia either - it used to be part of the Soviet Union though. It's an EU member country now.
 
Why don't you insist on getting paid up front if you have any fears? I sold a bayonet on Gunbroker recently and the guy was from Germany. He wanted to wire the money to my bank account. That is probably legit but I have never doen that before so I told him Paypal or bank check. I didn't hear from him for a few weeks after that and then I e-mailed him to see if he stil wanted it. He said he was sending a bank check. I was prepared to lose the deal rather than give out my bank account info even though it was probably very safe. I have done a few oversees deals and they have all gone well. Italy, Germany, England and Canada mostly. I have not dealt with Russia or former Iron Curtain countries but I would if they paid up front.
 
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