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| Photograph by Irving Penn (The Getty Museum) |
If you have visited any of my sites recently, you may have noticed things look a little different.
Over the summer, I completely revamped and updated my Costume History Pages. This is a free historical clothing reference site dedicated to women and children’s clothing from 1790-1910.
I also rearranged my blog a bit- deleting some old posts and moving business related stuff to my website.�I have decided to keep all business related stuff “in house.”
But never fear! I am keeping some of the more popular posts here and offering links to my business blog where you can find old entries in their entirety. I will continue to keep this Blog active with other nonbusiness historical clothing�related�stuff!
On a final note, I have a story I would like to share.
Last week I was contacted via email by an individual we will call “John” wishing to purchase a few items. “John” owns a business in the EU and requested an invoice be sent to his email. No problem. I do this all the time.
“John” did not want to use�my current online e-commerce payment processor and wished to give me his�credit card number via email. Again- No problem.�This is not something out of the ordinary. Even though�I am more comfortable accepting credit card transactions over the phone (for security reasons), seeing how he was in the EU, I was willing to make an exception.
Then it gets strange. Instead of completing the transaction, “John” emails me requesting that I not ship the items to him in the EU but instead he will send a shipping agent to my location to pick the items up. �I responded that I do not offer private pick-ups but I would be happy to send the items to his shipping agent. “John” then requested that I charge his credit card double the amount of the merchandise and Western Union the difference to his shipping agent as compensation for his troubles.
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I responded I do not conduct transactions for third parties and I only process payments for actual merchandise sold including shipping. Therefore, if he was interested in completing the transaction, he needed to logon to my order form and use my�current credit card processor to complete the transaction.
“John” sent me a few more desperate emails- which I did not respond to. He never provided a credit card number or completed the transaction- thank goodness because it was probably a stolen credit card number. Essentially, this was a revised version of the Nigerian Money Transfer Scam (also known as the 419 scam) and it is a multibillion dollar industry. (Contrary to the name, The NMTS does not always originate in Africa.)
Fortunately, I was smart enough to know something just wasn’t quite right early on and was on high alert. If I had indeed run “John’s” credit card number and Western Unioned the money to the so called “shipping agent,” once the credit card number came back stolen, I would have been liable for the entirety of the transaction. And what if I had indeed given “John” a pick up address? Even though no one would have ever shown up, it still frightens me to think those within this criminal network would have access to my location.
