December 16, 2004

Beware of Fraud with Paypal!

I've sent this same message over the flashcom mailing list but I wanted to post to a wider audience just in case.

Unfortunately we have just been bitten by fraud of a paypal account from a client and I thought it best to send out a warning to all who may get involved with this guy as he seems *very* interested in Flash and Flash Communication Server applications.

I know this is a bit OT but I wanted to warn everybody that may come in touch with this guy who calls himself Steve. He has 2 email addresses that we know of:

clu3less@gmail.com
and
sales@maryamtariq.com

He will usually go by the handlename of "escape" and we think he is located in the India/Pakistan area though the domain is registered in the UK. Unfortunately most of the information is bogus which makes the guy pretty untrackable.

The paypal account that was used was registered to an Adam Benware (I'm pretty sure Adam has figured out his account has been hijacked though so I doubt it will be used again)

I had been warned about using paypal in the past and actually stopped using it due to hearing so many bad things about it but went for this last . This is just one more thing in the history of Paypal I guess and now I am joining the ever-growing crowd of those that say "DON'T USE PAYPAL!!" It is not secure and there is nothing you can do when they do bend you over and take it up the ......

Of course if anybody has any information on how to track this kind of thing, please let us know in the comment area or even an email to info (at) solid-thinking.com

Any leads or ideas will be very much appreciated.

Posted by Graeme at December 16, 2004 12:54 AM
　



Comments

"I had been warned about using paypal in the past" and "It is not secure"— I hadn't ever heard it was dodgy, accept for phishing emails. Can you expand a little on why we shouldn't use it, please.

Posted by: pete at December 16, 2004 02:02 AM

Paypal is famous for being dodgy. They have quite a few lawsuits pending currently etc.

You should check out www.paypalsucks.com There is a lot of information there.

Either way, if somebody buys something off of you and you deliver it by email, link etc.. (something that doesn't have a tracking number, sign etc..) then they cancel or that account was fraudulently used, you are screwed.

Paypal does say there is sellers insurance but it didn't work for me because our apps go out over the internet, hence no tracking number by UPS etc, and no signing of papers.

Posted by: Graeme Bull at December 16, 2004 02:07 AM

Thanks Graeme, I consider myself warned!

Posted by: pete at December 16, 2004 02:11 AM

Ditto. Our account was blocked when some m*ron complained he hadn't "received our software" -- which is served in ASP style off the very server she used to buy it from.

They wanted us to send a check for $10 (which would have cost like $30 in fees), instead of just accepting another card to cover the missing 10 bucks.

switched to ikobo, never looked back.

Posted by: alessandro at December 16, 2004 05:13 AM

heh welcome to the world of eCommerce where fraud is as live as SPAM.

Both parties of a transaction should be able to get a refund of costs.

The card holder can reverse the transaction (usually in some countries it requires signing a legal document stating you aren't defrauding the bank)

I'm not sure how paypal works as vendor, but if they deduct any money from you, you to can reverse the transaction. Of course if your selling software online or anything thats digital media, you're pretty much lost that to the void. Worse it may end up being on some mailing list soon or something like that.

If its a physical package, you can probably claim it under insurance of some kind that or halt the item in transit.

My advice is never ever give anyone anything physical for 48 hours as cash becomes liquid currency then and is non-transferrable.

But again, this is why passive income online can be very harmful to a business in that no matter what a server provider should always monitor all incoming transactions.. i mean would you leave a cash register open in a shop with a sign saying "Please pay before you leave" - as thats more secure then the web.

It pays to use visa approved providers and not small systems like paypal - especially if they don't cover you as a vendor. Atleast with Visa approved facilities you can take more control.

It also further illustrates why i think the online gateway systems should link Credit Card Numbers with Email Addresses, in that if a person(s) want to use a CC online they have to ask the bank for perm firstly, which the bank will then ask them for an email address to link to that account.

As with this kind of system in place you can sell passive stock online and email the person(s) the relevant information to gaining that stock - limiting credit card fraud.

Posted by: Scott Barnes at December 16, 2004 07:53 AM

This guy came to Rackspace Managed Hosting and opened an account with a stolen credit card.

Posted by: ag at January 18, 2005 07:17 AM