Online fraud prevention and lack of customer cooperation

Spie

Spie

Spie

Godfather
Godfather
Joined
17 Oct 2002
Posts
13,054
Location
Bromsgrove
OcUK, like many high-technology companies, get hammered by attempted fraud every day. To prevent fraud we have some fairly comprehensive security checks, especially for high-risk items. Nobody wants to see a fraudulent transaction on their credit card statement, and we don't want to lose the money.

I'm printing below an e-mail received by half my staff today (less any information that could identify the sender). The customer had never ordered from us before and ordered a laptop to be delivered to a different address to that of the cardholder. We asked for some proof of ID. This was the reply:-

I have ordered in good faith on a highly recomendation to yourself as my current laptop gave up the ghost and am away on Business trip this Saturday and needed a replacement laptop asap.

I have never been asked in my years of internet shopping when purchasing via credit or debit card to supply proof of address and again if this is the case then why does your so called system allow me to proceed to checkout with warning of this.

I received an order confirmation within minutes of placing the order with a promise of a further email that will be sent on dispatch of the order which i would expect you to honour.

Your lame excuse hiding behind the credit and debit card regulations is a very poor excuse and not legally backed by either my Nat West Card or the Consumer Credit Act of 1974.

To move this forward and secure a sale i would be interested to hear what you are prepared to do as your next step to ensure i receive this laptop in time for saturday.

If I was to reluctantly agree to fax yourself the relevant documents on Wednesday 16th May could you guarantee a delivery to my home address on Friday 18th May if were to take time off work and wait in for this delivery at a substantial cost to myself as without a laptop i am unable to work from home to prep for my planned weekend away.

In good faith I will take the relevant documents to my place of work on Wednesday 16th May with access to a fax machine and would appreciate your immediate response to (e-mail address supplied)

If not I will take my custom elsewhere and walk into (Competitor 1) or (Competitor 2) and walk out with a laptop where these unneccessary challenging questions are not asked as i am the customer. I would also be inclined to post my dealings with yourself on various prominent IT forums and share my experiences with my various and multiple IT colleagues looking to purchase from yourself in the future.

I await your response along with some offer of goodwill for this what i consider to be unneccessary beaureaucracy.

Sincerly

(customers name)
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Fortunately, most customers are not like this.
 
It wasn't Visage was it? ;)


The prospect is entirely missing the point. Why don't they understand that when companies ask for Proof of ID/Address that it is in the customers own interest?
 
Im looking at ordering a TV from you soon, when I do you can ask me for proof of ID as it will be going to aberdeen not south shields :).

Also when do you get "Toshiba Regza X Series 42X3030D 42" True HD LCD Television + HD EP10 DVD Player Bundle" in stock :)

I have asked via webnote.

KaHn
 
Funny enough, my laptop needs replacement and am looking at ordering from Ocuk. Spie do you take western union? :p Seriously though, it wouldnt bother me if they want extra ID so as to ensure everything goes well. Anyone who is against such moves probably have something to hide.
 
That guy couldn't come across as any more of a complete moron if he had tried. Half the stuff in that email is the kind of wording you reserve for when you've had a lengthy dispute with a retailer and are reaching last resort - there is simply no need to mention acts of goodwill and reference acts of parliament in the first instance of contact for something so simple.

I'd have been sorely tempted to cancel his order as he doesn't look the sort of person who'd make a good customer - whats he going to be like if something actually DOES go wrong with his Laptop...
 
I always thought you couldn't send to anything other than the invoice/cardholders address without ID in the first place.

I don't like it when customers dictate how to run my business (excepting criticism; however that email looks more like a pushy kid with a thief'd card),

What do you do in these situations Spie? I mean what ID would you take, as a lot can be forged?
 
I ordered a full system costing nearly £1,500 from OcUK a while ago now. (around 2 years)

I'd never ordered from them before and wanted it delivered to my work address.
This was queried in the same way as this customer's order was, but to be honest I was glad that a company was actually putting in proper checks to ensure that somone dodgy wasn't ordering over a grands worth of stuff on my credit card.
Sure it's a bit of a hassle, but it's more of a hassle trying to sort things out if you have someone fraudulently using your card.
 
Doesn't take much to send a fax. In-fact, it took a lot more to write that emeither. As was said above: Damned if you do, damned if you don't.
 
ElRazur said:
if they want extra ID so as to ensure everything goes well. Anyone who is against such moves probably have something to hide.
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Agreed, also the email is written in way that is similar to ever so common nigerian scammer ebay emails.
 
I ordered a load of stuff from OCUK about 6 months back and was asked to fax over confirmation of address in the form of a bank statement or some such. Yes it's a tiny bit of hassle (especially as I didn't have a fax machine, had to email the details to a friend to print out and fax for me) but good on OCUK for being careful with things like that!

It was my first order with OCUK at this address out here and I've never been asked since on subsequent orders. So it's no real hardship. I guess the guy is under a fair bit of stress, but he's ordering a laptop, which I would imagine is not a cheap purchase. I'm sure he'd be the first to complain if someone else had used his card to order a laptop and they didn't ask for any security details!
 
Sounds like a complete and utter tit trying to make himself sound important.

I wonder how much he would be thanking you if this had been a fraudulent transaction on his card and you stopped it.
 
[TW]Fox said:
No it isn't.
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Oh dare him. You must have read every email ever to come out from "nigeria" used for scams innit? Oh dare me too, how can i forget that you are Mr smartass - Fox.... :rolleyes: (rolls eyes at myself).
 
[TW]Fox said:
No it isn't.
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First impressions.....
I have ordered in good faith on a highly recomendation to yourself as my current laptop gave up the ghost and am away on Business trip this Saturday and needed a replacement laptop asap.
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Anyone who sends this illiterate away on a business trip will soon not have a business to speak of.
 
ElRazur said:
Oh dare him. You must have read every email ever to come out from "nigeria" used for scams innit? Oh dare me too, how can i forget that you are Mr smartass - Fox.... :rolleyes: (rolls eyes at myself).
Click to expand...

I'm so glad you are back - I love you.
 
Given how rife card fraud appears to be in some area's, and how damned inconvenient it can be for the customer (let alone costly for the retailer), i'm surprised that people react so strongly when a retailer asks for proof of ID to ship anywhere but the registered card holders address.

I can understand it can be mildly annoying at times to have an order delayed whilst the retailer waits for proof of ID, but I would never complain about it, if it's done in a timely manner (if anything I take it as a sign the retailer is being thorough and looking out for customers as well as themselves).
I've had to provide such proof a number of times in the past to different retailers, although most were overseas and shipping to my home address.
 
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