got onto page 1 of google and noticed a massive amount of fraud and now im ruined

GREMLIN · #1 06-08-2009

Man ive had a very stressful weekend.

I got onto page 1 of google for a few competitive key-phrases including cheap lcd tv - cheap digital camcorder and cheap microwave oven.

I made sales in excess of £15k this weekend and the majority of them were all fraudulent transactions. The card address did not match the customer address so I decided to give the customers a quick call. payment had gone through and accepted.

Upon trying to call many customers I noticed that many of the numbers would not work. So i emailed the customers- 24hrs later no reply. I wasnt prepared to send out high priced items knowing the transactions could be fraudulent. So I got into contact with netbanx who accept the payments for me. My merchant id is with streamline.

Anyway netbanx advised that if I have a suspicion then I should refund the transactions as its better then getting a chargeback and going against my business. So i did just that. Refunded over £12k the rest of the orders were fine.

Today I had about 5 customers call up to make payment over the phone. I took payment and all went through well but i didnt recieve any confirmation emails so got into contact with netbanx. netbanx resolved the issue and as usual like a twit I started to ask questions and tried to renegotiate transactions. After a long chat we came to point of me mentioning that I am waiting for a large sum of money to clear into my business bank and it hasnt done so. the transactions were taken on the 28/05 so its been like 7 working days. Netbanx advised that I should get in contact with streamline - who i have never called.

Anyway I called netbanx and enquired they said that funds should take no longer then 3 working days. So I explained that I am still waiting for many funds to clear. The adviser looked into it for me then said that they must transfer me to another department.

When i was transferred a young lady started to ask me questions about my business so i started to answer thinking that they would be very happy with me as I was processing much more money then fore-casted. She went on to explain that the money was being diverted into the streamlines account instead of mine. I wasnt very happy about that as I ship my items the next working day. She advised that she will call me back.

I received the callback and she went on to say that due to recent activity and the amount of refunds along with the screening of my account they will provide me with a 30 day notice of cancellation. i wasnt very pleased about that. They have basically screwed my business and I can not accept payment.

Im loosing out on £1000s of pounds a day and have only just managed to bring my site to page 1 for many keywords. Its very frustrating and dont know how I will be able to get another merchant key.

I dont know what to do with my website now - any ideas?

**aspkin** · #2 06-08-2009

Get another Merchant account?

Oh and by the way about your fraud orders, be sure to verify the IP address and call customers who order from you.. there is lots of fraud out there, I almost lost my first business because of fraud.

GREMLIN · #3 06-08-2009

Man Aspkin im so stressed. I feel as if I was in love and now my hearts been broken in 2..lol.. not a great way to explain how I feel but its not far off. Ive put so much effort into this site and then bang i had to stop.

My sites still doing great for the the keyphrases you checked out with me and the trafic has increased with a large conversion although many were fraudulent I still had many legit ones. Netbanx also sorted out the verified by visa password protection thingy that would protect me from chargebacks for the ones that used the 3d verification.

Ive never had much luck with merchant accounts and thought that a proper merchant account would work a treat. have a look at my previous posts from about 5 months back. All of my paypal accounts get limited with large sums of cash and I have a difficult time.

I would love to get another merchant account but its not that simple. TBH I am in the process of setting up another business bank account, once thats done I will get a online merchant key and use protex..I see alot of potential and I aint gonna loose it that easy.

Man I dont think ive ever seen that much money fly around so fast before. It certainly gave me a glimpse of how all these other sites are doing on page 1 with competitive key phrases.

Its gonna take me at the earliest 1 month to get another merchant account and start to trade. No paypal account will allow that much money going through without history.

I was looking at the listings on page one and the keyphrases that I am ranking for is what shopping comparison sites rank for and other sites such as amazon and ebay. Maybe there would be more money in creating a shopping comparison site and I will take the site to page one for many high CPC keyphrases. Not sure how I would design such a site though but deff alot of potential for any site being on page one. Wouldnt be hard to advertise company products and have them pay you per a click or some sort of subscription.

If you think theres something else that I can do with the site then please advise me. But I am planning on bouncing back - its just a little disheartening

Anyway thanks alot

Burning · #4 06-08-2009

Did you try google checkout.

ebay · #5 06-08-2009

15k in one weekend your raking the money in mate

TapTapper · #6 06-08-2009

Quote:

Originally Posted by GREMLIN

I feel as if I was in love and now my hearts been broken in 2..lol.. not a great way to explain how I feel but its not far off. Ive put so much effort into this site and then bang i had to stop.

I feel your pain, chum

I lost payment processing on my site just as my efforts began to pay off and orders started streaming in. It's hard to bear but never the end!

philly387 · #7 06-08-2009

I suggest talking with Aspkin if you want to get away from selling goods...I'm sure he can point you in the right direction on what to do with your site if you are on page 1 of google! That's an accomplishment in itself with those keywords.

GreenBean · #8 06-08-2009

Gremlin,
I am sorry to hear about this as I know how much work you have put into your site. Are you going to speak to the fraud section of the merchant account people? Make sure you keep every single record. To me this seems like an organised scam...there should be something that can be done.

GREMLIN · #9 06-09-2009

Thanks for your replies everyone
Ive tried google checkout - been suspended with them on my current url that I use - Yes your right £15k is alot of money for the weekend but I had the products to sell so by no means was it all profit.

I was hoping Aspkin would come to the rescue but in all honesty the only thing I can think of doing other then what I am doing now is to use the site for cpa campaigns or some sort of advertising place which i dont know too much about.

Greanbean I have had a conversation with streamline for over a hour or so and even got through to a team leader. The process and screening that they do is kept very discreet. I was lucky I spotted all of the fraudulent ones as I tried calling them and wasnt going to send out high priced items to addresses I had concerns about.

Anyway luckily I have a great sister who is helping me out - so were getting another merchant account - fingers crossed- Its gonna take the best part of a month to get going again. Im just gonna have to make sure that I get the verified by visa 3d enabled on my site straight away, this should help with the fraud.

Im just a little gutted as I have alot of stock and started to concentrate on consumer sales more.

Never mind - a knock to the ground will just help me bounce back and take a bigger knock next time-------hopefully there will be no more next time

GreenBean · #10 06-09-2009

Good that you made contact with a team leader. My hope would be there is a fraud investigation to stop these barstewards from doing damage again.

boondoggle · #11 06-09-2009

Surely you must be able to get another payment processor sorted asap? 15k in a weekend- that's not bad going- obviously know what youre doing

GREMLIN · #12 06-09-2009

yeh your right greenbeen, what do you suggest I do? pass over all the details to streamline for them to investigate?

Business is still kind of steady. i wasnt expecting any sales now that I cant accept payment over the phone or on the net but some customers are willing to transfer money into my account so its better then I thought.

Ive signed up to a company called maxbounty who are a cpa campaign company. They have some pretty good offers and im tryling them out on my website to see how they work for me.

One of them is great for win a lcd tv - lets see how that go's. If Aspkin looks at my site again if her remembers what it is then im sure he wouldnt recommend me using them as it devalues the site. Ive got about a month or so before all settles down again ( I hope) so am just trialing them.

I think I will actually get into contact with streamline and advise them of the details of fraud. Im just surprised they didnt take it upon themselves to ask me. TBH alot of this would have been resolved if netbanx done their job properly - they should have assigned the 3d secure payment on my account as soon as i went live but they had to wait for the website approval. The majority of the transactions were done using maestro cards and all maestro cards now need to go through the 3d secure page to make payment. Netbanx set me up for this the day I was advised my account was closing.

Anyhow ive gotto get back on the phones and shift my stock so if anyone's interested in any top class jvc stock then contact me - However I wouldnt recommend these items for ebay unless you have a very good established account and if you do then contact me and lets rake in the cash together. I will deliver direct to your customers so you wont have to stock the items yourself.

GreenBean · #13 06-09-2009

Suggest you get all the data you can, make another call to that team leader. Tell them that you are prepared to sue for fraud & what are they going to do to help you. Hint that you might get the bizzies involved.
Bottom line (for me) you have been cheated & need to have that sorted.
These merchant account bods have sections that deal with this sort of thing.

GREMLIN · #14 06-10-2009

Thanks for the advise greenbean
I got in touch with them and passed over the relevant details including the ip addresses used and the delivery addresses used.

I think there is a big problem with the way netbanx and zencart communicate. They are definitely getting the payment amount and item right but the customers details are not being carried over to the payment page so they are able to enter whatever postcode and card name they like making me think the delivery address and the billing address is the same but really it isnt.

Anyway they are not going to re-open my account and there is nothing I can do about it. I am in the process of trying to get another merchant account opened but this time through our own bank rather then going through streamline. Its just a pitty as I could see so much potential and then suddenly get shut down.

I dont know what im gonna do if i cant get another merchant account. Im trying to figure out a way to promote business products and get paid directly into my account or by cheque from the businesses. If you guys have any ideas then let me know.

I also believe in the seo techniques that I use and believe I could get more or less any website onto page 1 of google - im also up for a challenge if someone wants to put one my way but their will need to be a worth while reward at the end of it(when I succeed) - but dont know what I can do to make any money out of it. I mean ive always sold products and this is what I do but without being able to accept payments on the net im more or less stuck unless someone can advise any other form of making money.

Cheers