|
|
Register | All Photos | FAQ | Members List | Calendar | ShopStream (Radio/TV) | Search | Today's Posts | Mark Forums Read |
Knife Making Discussions A place to discuss issues related to all aspects of the custom knifemaking community. |
|
Thread Tools | Display Modes |
#1
|
||||
|
||||
Warning Con Man Alert!!
This guy will buy your knives and they are gone!
This is for the Internet Purveyors, makers out there. This guy is from Israel, and uses the name Vlad Pavlov, passes himself off as a Dentist (he is only 21) He will make a 2-3 knife purchase, when knives arrive try same thing again. This is one evil individual. Watch out for him, he raises no red flags on first blush. Anyone else who has been burned by this guy, pls let me know, he has no conscience and needs to be stopped! __________________ Peace Paul Vandine |
#2
|
||||
|
||||
Quote:
Does he pay for the knives with a bad credit card or do you send them to him and he does not pay for them? |
#3
|
||||
|
||||
He uses a CC that clears takes the knives and sells them. He then emailed me and told me the # was fraudulant
__________________ Peace Paul Vandine |
#4
|
||||
|
||||
Paul
I just shipped a knife to Vlad a week ago for $970. Thanks for the heads up. Now I have got to get with MasterCard and try to keep him from stopping it from going through some how. And I will sell him no more knives. Thanks again, I appreciate it. But now I am in a Panic. Hope I don't get burned for the $970, I don't have that kind of money to loose, if I do it will hurt immensly. Dusty |
#5
|
||||
|
||||
People Like that make me sick! I sure hope you two are able to get your maoney!
__________________ David Johansen http://www.dsjblades.com |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Since you guys have an address on this character, perhaps a call to an Israeli embassy might get some action.
|
#7
|
||||
|
||||
That would be nice Fitz, but I am sure it is just a pickup point. I got the feeling he didn't get his packages until 1-2 AM People like that, and I use the term loosely, will scam one or two pwople using a similar address, then change it to avoid being caught.
Not holding my breath. But have not given up. __________________ Peace Paul Vandine |
#8
|
||||
|
||||
Fraud and Theft! Is there NO help out there??
Hello!
Dusty's wife Carla posting. Unfortunately, we did not read the postings earlier, and just shipped Vlad a $950 knife last Wednesday! Dang! He used a different address than I saw posted earlier. We have called Visa, and of course got the run around that they could not help us... even in asking them to flag the card in advance of the charge back if it occurs! I see where you talk about address verification, BUT when I do an international card authorization, they do not ask me for the address of the card holder! We should have gotten concerned when his first card was rejected, but he said he had overspent and sent us another card number. The second one went through. Now for the second part of our complaint!!! We have insurance for theft! BUT, after calling them, we found out that they are not much help either! SHEESH! I understood that we were covered for theft, but after calling the company, I was informed that we were only covered for $250! And only because he emailed us his card number info! If we had taken the information over the phone (which we did try to do---line was busy), we would have not been covered at all!!!! So, now that starts a whole new thing! Finding a company that will cover us for things like that! RUDE AWAKENING! We thought we were covered, but found out that any sale conducted over the phone with the customer giving us all the correct information, and later cancels the charge in a fraudulent manner... we are not covered at all by our insurance! I was in shock, as that includes a good majority of our sales.... we are better off accepting a check!... or take a chance on a money order. What we ended up with is that the only time we are fully covered, is when someone breaks in to our house and steals a knife, steals one off the table, or it is lost if we ship via FedEx and someone signs for it! (UPS is only covered at a lesser rate!) Even when we are carrying the knives to a show ourselves, our coverage is lessened! We are insured through Collectibles Insurance Agency. Now, this is our coverage... if any one out there is using this company, please check your coverage... yours may be different. We went for a long time without insurance coverage, and was tickled to find this company. If anyone has a better company, PLEASE let us know, and well check them out and see if we need to change companies! After talking this over with Dusty, we got concerned that now there is really no safe way to have a knife paid for.... now we will have to not trust anyone (which we hate to do) and wait for a check or money order to clear, and for international orders, I guess going Western Union or MoneyGram are our only viable options! Any other suggestions, would be greatly appreciated! Carla Moulton Last edited by Dusty Moulton; 11-15-2005 at 06:47 AM. |
#9
|
||||
|
||||
eeesh...im sorry to hear about that guys. what about paypal? im not sure what their policy is exactly in situations like this but i had a friend get scammed in the same way and they actually refunded her money (several hundred dollars)
|
#10
|
||||
|
||||
?Paypal... a viable solution
Yes, I do believe Paypal is another viable source. We take that as well, and believe they do protect the seller as well as the buyer.
Thanks for your input. Carla |
#11
|
||||
|
||||
Banks and credit card merchant services....always...ALWAYS...side with the credit card user. .
With my former bank/merchant service provider I did over $1 Million worth of credit card transactions in less than 3 years....$1 Million! I had a fraud problem with some thieves in Indonesia a few years back. Who did the back, you guessed it, the thieves. I closed my account and went to another bank. Should you have an overseas transaction ask the buyer for their full name and billing address and bank who issued the card. You can then contact your merchant and have them contact the issuing bank and give them the name and billing address to check if they are correct. Even if your bank confirms this information and you are defrauded the bank will still try and wiggle out of it. I always ask for an approval code for the transaction, this makes the bank at least partially responsible. Fortunately in the last 3 years I have not had a single charge back. The absolute best way to get money from overseas is a wire transfer. It costs the sender about $40 (more or less the cost of a WU Money Order). It costs you $12 - $16 depending on what you bank charges. About the same as a credit card fee. Takes 48 - 96 hours depending on where the money is coming from and the sophistication of their banking system. __________________ Les Robertson Custom Knife Entrepreneur Field Editor for Blade Magazine www.robertsoncustomcutlery.com |
#12
|
||||
|
||||
Confirmed stolen numbers.
Good Morning Y'all.
Well, after a couple of evenings spent on the phone, we have confirmed that both numbers this Vlad person gave us were stolen numbers! I finally convinced someone in the authorization department to check on the first number that was "over the limit" per the buyer... it was a stolen number. The second one, after I called the issuing bank, belonged to some poor gentleman in Utah! They were going to contact him. From what I gather in talking to others, this guy must have a good stash of numbers to use! He even has the security code on the cards! He is armed well! I was so angry last night after talking (basically to a brick wall) that we as merchants, have NO protection. Even though it probably won't get us our money back, I wrote a LONG letter in protest to our Merchant services carrier. At the end I told them that it was great for the consumer to be well protected, but asked them about their "other customers".... the merchants themselves! They are supposed to be calling me tonight or tomorrow night. My first question then will be: "When I call in from the US, for authorization on a foreign shipment, on a card that is from the US, WHY isn't a flag automatically sent up??!! That in itself should generate them asking for name and address on the buyer! If ever we do get another purchase like that one, I know now what to do!!!! and that includes checking the person out on the forums as well! Hindsight is wonderful, isn't it! Hopefully this guy will be caught soon. From what I understand, the only thing we can do on this end, is file a report for fraud to our local police. They in turn can contact Interpol through their sources, who in turn contact the Israeli government. It may be worth the effort, but I would think that Interpol and the Israeli gov't are plenty busy as it is, and won't be too concerned about tracking this guy down! But we can always hope. I sincerely hope that other sellers out there, do see these posts before the thief gets off with another knife! Carla Moulton |
#13
|
|||
|
|||
I'm sorry to hear this Dusty.
A.T. __________________ "Many Knives by Many Makers" http://www.customknives.com "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." Tom Gresham |
#14
|
||||
|
||||
One solution that has been used in the past is to use PayPal as they have an easy refund option that you can click on to refund someone's money. At the same time that you receive money for a knive through PayPal, or possible other means (merchant account, etc...) you could hold the knife for 30 days giving the card time to either clear or show up as stolen. If all is well after 30 days, which is enough time for someone to get a credit card or bank statement, then ship the knife but only after you are certain that the transaction is legitamate. This is the only way that I can think of to avoid this type of problem while still being able to accept online payments from customers.
|
#15
|
||||
|
||||
I am sticking with my policy for overseas orders: check drawn on a U.S. bank, in US$, or wire transfer. Absolutely no credit cards.
|
Tags |
knife, knives |
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | |
Thread Tools | |
Display Modes | |
|
|