Thursday, October 22, 2009

Payment methods scammers use - and how to watch out for them

I took the time today to look at about 20 sites that sell fakes and noticed they have a lot in common. In fact, I know that 5 of them are owned by the same counterfeiting ring in China based on the seller's PayPal email address (see #1 below). Not only do many of them use the same website template, but they also take the same payment methods:

  1. PayPal only - Sites that use PayPal as the only option for credit card payments sell fakes. Try it for yourself: add an item to the cart, go through the motions of checkout and get to the PayPal screen. The seller's email address (or user id) will appear on the screen. Most of the time this will be a yahoo, gmail, hotmail etc. email address, indicating a clear scam.
  2. Visa/Mastercard - Of the sites I investigated today they all used the same M.O. in regards to accepting credit cards. After you add an item to your cart and get to the payment screen, you're taken to a third party website to complete the transaction that appear secure since there's a clickable GeoTrust seal. The domain name in your browser will change to pay.beijing.com.cn, pay.ips.com.cn, or secure.safepaymentgate.com. The .cn domain should be a dead giveaway, as that's the international code for China. I also encountered Chinese characters on the screen several times. The third outfit, according to it's website, specializes in ' high risk merchant accounts that we will accept for credit card processing' such as 'replica merchant accounts', 'Online Pharmacy merchant accounts', 'High chargebacks/refunds merchant accounts', 'Outbound Telemarketing Merchant Accounts', etc.
  3. Western Union/Money Gram - While both of these are reputable companies, if you see a website selling UGGs that accept either of these as payment stay away.
  4. Wire Transfer - Many reputable companies will offer this for out of country clients if you ask. If it's listed as a payment option on the checkout screens, watch out.
If you find anything else, I'd love to hear it.
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29 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 18, 2009 at 9:54 AM

    Thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJanuary 27, 2010 at 5:40 AM

    Thank you,
    You just kept me from giving away my credit card information to one of the pay.beijin.com.cn sites.
    I got alert when I saw the browser name change and googled the name.

    ReplyDelete
  3. itbolts.comSeptember 7, 2010 at 10:22 PM

    I never been agree with the person who write about the PayPal only checkout are Fraud. If you know or see that an email address is PayPal verified believe me its the most secure transection way, because PayPal check alot of security checks before a person become verfied payPal account holder and no mater whatever email address or email domain the person have but if its related with the website its more better.

    2)About the pay.beijin.com.cn is not a fraud as well i am belong from UK but i am a retailer and shopping from China so i never see any problem with that "redirection" (pay.beijin.com.cn)for most its "HTTPS" also buying from a huge marketplace like eBay and if anything hannpend your bank can take care of it.

    3) The other two option widly used is WU(westren Union) and TT (Tele Transfer) both are used for fruad even both are very Good services for Customers or People but the scammers use them as their Strong weapons as they have alot of security loop-wholes. I was bymyself victim of both 1 time. after that i never trust on both transections.
    Why i write this because i have my life experince and saw people who were fooled by scammers as well.

    Regards

    SJI Shah

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousOctober 26, 2010 at 8:45 PM

    Yep! Me too, I got forwarded to ips.cn and it didn´t seem right so I came to this...... Thank you though you may be wrong on number one on the paypal observation, I´ve made some purchases on ecrater.com to sellers with gmail email adresses without a problem! Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  5. AnonymousNovember 28, 2010 at 3:19 PM

    Thanks a lot! You've just saved me from giving away my credit card info to some chinese scammers. (pay.ips.com.cn)

    ReplyDelete
  6. AnonymousNovember 29, 2010 at 7:25 PM

    Saved my life man

    thanks

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousDecember 5, 2010 at 1:42 PM

    I have tried a site for uggs and when it came to paying it sent me to a third party site Security.ssleplay.com. Is this the same as the above?

    ReplyDelete
  8. howtospotfakeuggbootsDecember 7, 2010 at 7:36 AM

    I've not seen that one, but I can't recall an authorized dealer that redirects from their URL to another to process credit cards (exceptions are to Paypal or Google Checkout)

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousDecember 21, 2010 at 2:28 PM

    Anyone know anything about this? I've ordered from the uggaustralia.com website and received an email today asking me to fax my id over to a US number (I'm in the UK).

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousFebruary 9, 2011 at 5:02 PM

    I am at a site http://www.uggkickse.com it keeps redirecting me to pay.beijing.com website, however my friend's mom reccomened the site to me. I have seen the boot's she ordered off the site and the are fabulous. So, i'm stuck on what i should do?!

    ReplyDelete
  11. AnonymousFebruary 27, 2011 at 2:09 AM

    That is normal. I am American living in Europe. US companies need this fax for processing the order. (Probably their banks won't cover them if a stolen credit card is used to buy their products.)

    ReplyDelete
  12. AnonymousMarch 15, 2011 at 4:34 AM

    i almost paid to a site using the ips.com.cn as merchant.. i even tried looking up the website then i found your blog and alot of other scammes done byt them.. thanks bro

    ReplyDelete
  13. AnonymousMay 6, 2011 at 3:05 PM

    Ok....Thank you for your help.
    so, do you think also this site is fake???? http://www.ralphlaurenpolousa.com/mens-polos-shortsleeved-c-1_2.html

    If someone know somethink about it, please let me know!!
    Thank you very much
    bye bye

    ReplyDelete
  14. AnonymousMay 17, 2011 at 4:31 PM

    And yet another Thank You!
    You prevented me from ordering a product from:
    www.dvdhotdeal.com
    (I was already a bit suspicious, as their "Helpcenter" does not look very confidential)
    after it redirected me for payment to:
    pay.ips.com.cn/icpay/customization/foreigntrade/payment.aspx

    ReplyDelete
  15. AnonymousJuly 10, 2011 at 9:15 AM

    http://www.uggsirelandsale.com/ is it fake or real

    ReplyDelete
  16. AnonymousJuly 16, 2011 at 11:29 AM

    thanks so much... I nearly got done - saw the name change to pay.ips.com. and googled. Have to continue my ugg search now!!

    ReplyDelete
  17. AnonymousAugust 6, 2011 at 3:17 PM

    Just done the same thing went to order boots from bootbarn.com and I got transferred to bootbarn.me thank god their was a problem when I got put through to the 3rd screen and I couldn't enter my card details, then they emailed me bootbarn8@gmail.com and said their was a problem with my payment and to try again and get free gifts also, guess the gifts were my card being cleared!!!

    ReplyDelete
  18. AnonymousAugust 6, 2011 at 3:20 PM

    Same thing happened to me thank god payment didn't go through as transferred to pay.beijing and they had to cheek to email me and ask me to try again and I would get a free gift haha

    ReplyDelete
  19. AnonymousAugust 7, 2011 at 9:17 AM

    Thanks so much, I thankfully had the presence of mind to double check before I submitted my card details as I had a gut feeling about this.

    ReplyDelete
  20. AnonymousAugust 21, 2011 at 11:38 PM

    tx tx tx tx tx tx

    ReplyDelete
  21. AnonymousNovember 12, 2011 at 6:41 AM

    this website http://www.abercrombieuksale.co.uk/checkout/cart/ redirect to one below for payment

    https://pay.ips.com.cn/icpay/customization/foreigntrade/payment.aspx

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  22. AnonymousNovember 24, 2011 at 4:28 PM

    https://www.fashionpay.com/fashionpayRequestAction.action

    Kids and I went to blackfriday-uggs.com and were redirected to site above for payment. Looked so authentic, and then we were redirected as you said...but didn't check url until now.
    Payment wasn't accepted and they wanted it again so I canceled my credit card, luckily bank did not pay it.

    ReplyDelete
  23. AnonymousDecember 4, 2011 at 3:36 PM

    http://www.uggespanaprecios.com are fake as well. Falsos, estafa, no trust, crap, scammer, no comprar

    ReplyDelete
  24. AnonymousDecember 6, 2011 at 2:52 PM

    Same here... just before i hit enter, i saw name change to pay.ips.com.cn.
    Google and this site, is your friend. thx

    ReplyDelete
  25. AnonymousDecember 23, 2011 at 7:19 AM

    thanks!!! i suspected something just when i was going to pay, and your info confirmed the scam. Thanks for helping stoping this f*ckers!

    ReplyDelete
  26. AnonymousMarch 6, 2012 at 7:47 PM

    I'm just curious as to whether these fake sites take and abuse individual's credit card detils or whether they are simply selling un-authentic goods?

    ReplyDelete
  27. AnonymousMay 21, 2012 at 6:55 AM

    https://pay.ips.com.cn/icpay/customization/foreigntrade/payment.aspx

    Tried to buy Juicy Couture under the website name www.juicycoutures.co.uk seemed amazing value and free shipping, too good to be true. I typed this link in google and a few scammers use the same form of payment.

    However Paypal as mentioned on other comments is one of the most secure forms of payment as if any thing happens it covers you and if they don't give you a refund then pay pal will. If this site would have used paypal i would have bought it knowing I'm covered. Also you're not having to give personal account info as it goes from pay pal to pay pal account.

    Thanks for this post!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. howtospotfakeuggbootsJune 6, 2012 at 6:16 AM

      Remember: if it seems too good to be true, then it is!

      I've heard of people having a hard time getting a refund from Paypal when they unknowingly purchase counterfeit items. Be sure to read through all the fine print before you finally pull the trigger.

      Delete

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