Insight into the recent scams

Greeniejr · June 13, 2011 1:03AM

With all these recent fraudulent orders you would think the credit card companies would be learning but alas they are not. Because Discover dropped the ball on a fraudulent order and have records of repeatedly assuring us a suspicious transaction was good, they did some investigating into these CC frauds that have been happening. A representative from Discover and from Fedex worked together with local law enforcement in CA to try and track down the people perpetrating this fraud. After shipping the first order (which Discover is on the hook for) the person ordered again. This time discover commented that the transaction was no good. We shipped an empty package to the address provided and suddenly people moved and the person emailed about forwarding to a different location. In any event, the police knocked on the door of the house it was delivered to and the person spilled the beans on what was happening.

How this works is that the criminals steal credit card numbers, change the address on the cards, and have a new card shipped to the bogus address. This way the AVS and 3 digit code from the card match. They have the coins shipped to people who answer ads on craigslist or the newspaper for people looking to make a quick buck. In this case the person received the package and was instructed to take it to a coin store and sell it. The person received a $400 commission and was instructed to send the balance via Western Union to someone in Malaysia.

More details to follow if they become available.

ricko · June 13, 2011 1:34AM

Amazing... it is like a disease, infecting and spreading, all for profit at someone else's expense. Cheers, RickO

smirkingchamp · June 13, 2011 2:07AM

Yea, over the weekend upon reviewing one credit card, I noticed 4 transactions for "Microsoft XBox-WA" online games. I called the cc company to alert them. I don't even own an XBox. I also called Micro$oft and they said someone opened an account under my name, cc # and address. They then went on to tell me that the person attempted to set up PayPal when the fraud was detected and the account was closed the next day. My credit card company was unaware of all of this apparently.

PerryHall · June 13, 2011 2:08AM

Thanks for the information but I'm not sure it's a good idea to explain in detail how to perform this con.

BlindedByEgo · June 13, 2011 2:14AM

<< <i>Thanks for the information but I'm not sure it's a good idea to explain in detail how to perform this con. >>

The board readers in Malaysia may get ideas...

notwilight · June 13, 2011 2:20AM

<< <i>Thanks for the information but I'm not sure it's a good idea to explain in detail how to perform this con. >>

I agree.

But kudos to you for working with discover and the police to find the perps. --jerry

streeter · June 13, 2011 3:07AM

A friend of mine is with internal security for a worldwide shipper. He has told me interesting stories about some of the scams that go on. There are 'rings' of thieves that operate within shipping companies. These people take years to get hired on without the company knowing the connection.

During conventions...HIGH value merchandise Conventions, thieves will palm a label and just swipe their hand over the old label & presto chango---the package is redirected. I don't know if this is still practiced but at one time it was.

joebb21 · June 13, 2011 3:30AM

i dont think the scammers are coming to the pcgs message boards to learn how to scam

RGJohn · June 13, 2011 8:20AM

<< <i>Thanks for the information but I'm not sure it's a good idea to explain in detail how to perform this con. >>

Knowledge is power. We need to know how things work so we can thwart the bad guys.
I often find myself asking " Now, how did/do they do that?" ; not because I seek to do so as well.

Greeniejr · June 13, 2011 9:20AM

Something else scary about this is that the fences can be anyone and don't fit into any kind of profile. It is not a rare occurance that someone will walk in with 1 or 2 slabbed 20s to sell all with stories we have no reason to doubt. Now knowing their approah it will plant the seeds of doubt whether the sellers are legit. There is nothing you can really do but like terrorism it is the creation of doubt and fear by which they measure their success.

GrumpyEd · June 13, 2011 12:22PM

<< <i>They have the coins shipped to people who answer ads on craigslist or the newspaper for people looking to make a quick buck. In this case the person received the package and was instructed to take it to a coin store and sell it. The person received a $400 commission and was instructed to send the balance via Western Union to someone in Malaysia >>

Seems like the person who answered the Craigslist ad probably knew (or should have known) it was a scam.

Insight into the recent scams

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