Expose and Avoid Customer Payment Scam

If you have an online business, you take online payments. Just like any business bad debt due to customer’s payment’s being rejected or worse yet , being fraudulent is a major problem for any small business. How do you detect, avoid and collect on bad debt, in short how do you avoid customer payment scams?

How to Get Money Back from Customers

Well fortunately, the law is on your side. Knowing the laws is the first step in manging your debt from customer payments that are returned. The law will help with how to get money back from customers and settle customer payment issues. The laws being on your side is good but you really want to limit the amount of money that is tied up with bad debt before it turns in to bad debt. Avoid customer payment scams are something you have to be able to do when you have an online business or you are at the mercy of the scam artist.

Here are some customer payment issues and scams to be aware of:

The Check Overpayment scam is run out of places that have an unstable economy. Nigeria happens to be one such place where this scam is prevalent. The basis for the scam is that you sell an item on an online auction, you receive a n International Money order but the money order is for @100 more than the purchase price. Typically the “extra” money is to cover shipping. So you, being the good person you are, put the IMO in your bank account, you refund the difference between the purchase price and shipping and send the funds back to the buyer. A week or so goes by and you get a notice from your bank indicating that the IMO has not cleared. This leaves you in a situation where you are out the price of the item, the online auction fees, your time AND whatever funds you sent back as a refund by this time you’re now asking yourself  ‘how to get money back from customers like this one?’. Because the economy in Nigeria is unstable the banking systems are slow and do not follow much of the same accounting practices the rest of the world does. As such this type of scam is possible. The only real way to avoid such a scam is to hold the item and refund until the International Money Order clears the bank and you know the funds are available to you. Never refund money that has not cleared your bank, ever. Be cautious of any overpayment regardless of how the over payment occurred or the payment was presented to you unless it is cash.

A Helping Hand on Customer Payment Issues

Online customer payment issues and payment scams have become so prevalent these days that the FBI has established a web site for sharing information about current online customer payment Issues including payment scams. Clearly, it is important to avoid customer payment issues as this will mark the beginning of chaos on you business. If you are going to conduct business online you are well served spending a little time reading about customer payment issues, what other forms of scams, current round of scams look like and how to get money back from customers that have scammed you. Most online auction sites also offer good information about current and scams. You should take some time and make yourself familiar with the current round of scams. Staying current with what scams are presently being tried will go a long way to helping you avoid being a victim. If you suspect that you are being fraud you should report it. The only way that scams are defeated is if people report them to the authorities and the people conducting the scams are tried and convicted. All too often the person that has been scammed is embarrassed and does not report the crime. Help others, report it when you think there is a scam going on.