Comments on: An inside look at e-commerce fraud in South Africa

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By: Pablo

Pablo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 10:37:56 +0000

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By: Andrew Smith

Andrew Smith — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:50:28 +0000

Hi Melissa

I’ve e-mailed you some details of a system like that which exists. We’re making progress slowly!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:17:50 +0000

Hi, I have a small gift box business, and I also get these people, where 2 of them got away, and I only allow cash or bank transfer. Watch out for them, they usually ask for special favors (on odd times) etc. Isn’t there a central website where you can give Email and Names and PhoneNr you’ve got so that if others Google, the email or phone, that they will pick up that they are dealing with Fraudsters? The following person even phoned me at 1:15am faranaazg@gmail.com 0767786000

By: Jackie

Jackie — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 09:28:33 +0000

I have also had a similar fraudster who works out of Pretoria/PE. The first order he placed, a Valentines gift, checked out – the only flag was an American card, it was delivered. Next, he placed three other orders and used 4 different cards, all American, non were approved. He used different names but each order corresponded with same address/e-mail/cell pohone. He even answers his phone and e-mailed me to tell me how he loved the gift! His bad spelling and grammar are similar to FS. I contacted my bank, the American bank and online gateway and the bottom line is that no crime has been committed as the goods have been delivered and have been paid for. All I want is to report the de;livery addresses, company e-mail address, cell no. IP addresses – I have so much info and no one to help me. At least, there should be a central website that online stores can go to report these fraudsters – to help innocent credit card holders as well as online merchants (who many times are the ones who have to refund the bank)!

By: Mantality

Mantality — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:22:39 +0000

Very insightful article with a lot of great tips.

I’ve recently launched an online store here in South Africa and around 10% of all orders coming in are (and appear) fraudulent. Thankfully I am able to spot them straightaway as a lot of the time the fraudsters use generic names like Henry Smith, Stuart Brown etc, along with a delivery address being the middle of JHB CBD with a postcode of 2000, 2001. I’ve also contacted a few of them, only to hear a very afro-french sounding Henry Smith.

The other obvious giveaway is the free email accounts – Webmail.co.za being the popular choice. And the choice of products ordered: fragrances and giftsets are very popular among the fraudsters on my site and they usually order about R2,000 worth of the stuff – which is way above the order average.

Upon contacting my payment provider Netcash, they informed me that not a whole lot is being done about this by the card issuing banks but gave me a very good tip. They said to contact the customer and inform them that their transaction has not gone through due to “insufficient funds” and if they believe this to be untrue, to fax through a copy of their credit card statement (via online banking or a pop in to their branch) where the transaction for the order amount appears on their statement with their name appearing as well – I always never hear back from them by using this method.

These and a few other tricks help keep me ahead of these fraudulent sh!theads.

By: Rowan

Rowan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:13:28 +0000

Hey Andrew, very funny read. I am absolutely amazed at the passport that he produced. He should take some Photoshop lessons though. I would also be very interested in getting involved in the database idea. I really think thats a great preventative measure to fish out dodgy emails ect.

By: JP van der Spuy

JP van der Spuy — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:24:20 +0000

Ha ha, this is classic. Well played. It’s actually scary to know how easy the these crooks have it. Glad you guys had a system in place and picked up the event before ol frankie got his free parcel!

South-African police and banks should wake up, we are still very much behind standards and potential.

Great post Andrew!

By: naeem

naeem — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:39:37 +0000

oh ya about the online database – i’m actually working on something like that – should have it up and running in about 3 weeks time. Hoping the rest of Za ecom industry latches onto it.

By: naeem

naeem — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:31:21 +0000

online fraud stories, i can write a book about the scammers we get. Each month we get tried for about 400k worth of fraud transactions (90% get declined and that 10% i personally decline)

Most Notable, when i went on honeymoon

Scammer ran his card for a arb order of about R200 – unfortunately my colleague delivered.

A day later, 2nd order for about R900. We delivered.

*now i return from holiday*

3rd order was about R2000 – i looked at history, etc and put things together to realise its a scammer.

His modus operandi was:
When the courier calls to confirm delivery, he says “I’m not home now, but let me meet you at Killarney Mall” Courier driver meets, and you know the rest.

THIS TIME – we called him to confirm delivery at Killarney Mall – Called in a favour from our cop friends, liased with courier.

CAUGHT! – as he signed delivery, about to drive off – we blocked him out (like an episode out of Cops!)

What followed was, lets just say i wont type it online. Anyway, cops, us, scammer – raided his apartment in Hillbrow, then brixton & his home in JHB-South

During that time – we found dozens of cameras, laptops, tv’s, clothing, radio’s, etc on his pc he had bookmarks to about 30 webmail/yahool email accounts, a 3″ thick stack of credit cards, a dozen Postnet mailboxes.

We, with the cops layed a charge at Brixton police station. We physically saw the evidence and saw them sign the paperwork.

4 weeks later – document missings – dude is released.

IF our JUSTICE system was working – we could personally put away 3 to 4 scammers a week, with ease! – but whats the point – he was released without any charges.