It's a very scary thought . . . but did you know that No one wants to know what we MERCHANTS know?? No one wants to take urgent information from merchants regarding the crooks stealing your money and your identy?? That's absolutely and very unfortunately right!! While Citibank spends whopping advertising dollars on those entertaining Identy Theft Ads on TV, has anyone ever asked them what they do with information provided by MERCHANTS regarding suspicious credit card activity?? The answer is NOTHING! As a small business Merchant doing commerce on the web we are getting an increasing number of fraudulent internet orders. Certain "red flags" have prompted suspicions and we have put our own protective measures in place. However there is NO ONE ANYWHERE that CARES and/or wants to have the information that we merchants can provide IMMEDIATELY within seconds of receiving such orders. We made 2 reports to the FTC and have contacted local (Houston, TX)law enforcement & the FBI. The FTC only sent back automated responses with case numbers. But no one has ever contacted us for details. The FBI suggested that we contact the law enforcement in the cities that originated the fraudulent orders. We then proceeded to contacted the Police in New Bedford MA regarding one obviously fraudulent order. This order gives the email address as well as the mailing address of the offender. The Police in New bedford after 2 weeks of follow up calls finally said that they could not respond because the dollar amount ($200.00) was not a high enough priority!! Even though they already knew the suspect! In the meantime we are receiving chargebacks from banks taking away our money in "nickles and dimes" on behalf of card holders who have been scammed to the tune of hundreds of dollars one "nickle & dime" order at a time by the same criminals. The credit card agencies have nothing in place as well and don't really care what information we give them. According to one VISA representative their hands are tied until the consumer issues an inquiry, which could be as long as 30 days after the crime. Now this subject SHOULD be making the FBI sit up and take notice. However, the only focus is on the consumer who has already been scammed. In the meantime the criminals have already moved on to other locations and other victims. There are agencies and laws in place to protect the consumer, (witness numerous TV stories on how credit card holders can protect themselves.) However and shamefully there is nothing in place to catch the crooks! There is a serious need to put in place an agency that can immediately act on valuable and timely leads from merchants. As it is now, the crooks are long gone by the time a consumer realizes that a credit card has been fraudulently used. And the crooks know it! You could be the next victim of Identy Theft. Your help is urgently needed to light a fire and get the attention of our Legislators, Law enforcement and Credit Card Companies and Banks to resolve this issue. Regards, Joan Mcardle-Nering BYTES 'n GRINS http://geekgifts.us http://stores.yahoo.com/bytesngrins 9500 Westview, Suite #108 Houston, TX 77055 713-465-4380 |
| ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ***A note about TELEPHONE orders: Are you concerned about using your credit card online??? Well we have Good News! You can now order with the ease of the Yahoo Shopping Cart WITHOUT using your credit card online. When you select your payment option from the options drop down menu, DO NOT select VISA, MC etc. but rather scroll down and select the one that asks us to call you for your credit card information. That's all there is to it! Once we receive your online order we will call you. You do not need to provide your credit card information on line. In the "Instructions" section just tell us when is the best time to call! We welcome your call for questions at any time however unless you are ordering logo imprinted or promotional items we discourage telephone orders. We prefer to have all your instructions and ship info in writing, and ordering through our store is the best way to prevent errors.
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