Kathy strikes again! To all my fellow small business owners. Beware of a Kathy Thompson who sends you a email to purchase very large orders! It's a SCAM!
I was almost a victim today, and thought today was the day I have been waiting for since 2007. I finally thought I could get my business off the ground, with this large order!
Below is what Kathy had to say in her email.
Hello,
Thanks for your reply back.I can't wait to have your lovely products in our store for my customers.Below listed is the items i want to order for and will want you to get back to me with total cost +shipping cost and i can provide you my credit card for you to charge and have my order ready and i can carry your product in our new inventory for our numerous customers.
MY ORDER............
Sweet Aromas 4U
Handcrafted Scented Candles
Pumpkin Spice Fall Themed Cake Candles
QTY...10
Pink Cake with Yellow/White Roses Candles
QTY...10
Navy Blue Rose Garden Votive Candle
QTY...10
French Toast and Orange Juice Candles
QTY...10
Three Pack Yellow & Brown Cupcake Candles
QTY...10
ADDRESS FOR THE SHIPPING QUOTE.........
Van Eeghenstraat 60
Amsterdam 1071 GK
Netherlands
Hope to read back from you with the total cost and we can proceed and finalized my order.
God bless you,
Kathy
To read what other small business owners had gone through with Kathy visit Peace Love and Craftiness blog page.
http://redeftdesigns.blogspot.com/2009/01/scam-update.html?showComment=1348771718195#c7620912434169005716
I only ship overseas after carefully verifying the customer. I have received an e-mail from this "Carrie" with almost the exact items and phrasing above. Which of course already looked suspicious. I did send back an order quote, but have a feeling I'm going to receive the same type of reply as stated above.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting this info, sometimes it's hard to track down foreign businesses details.
BTW, she "Carrie" is using a new e-mail address "sweetcarrsst@yahoo.com" but still using the same shipping address:
Van Eeghenstraat 60
Amsterdam 1071 GK
Netherlands
-Owner QuestGifts
You are very welcome K! We Have to be very careful on who we do business and transactions with. Wishing for you the best in your business.
DeleteI got one just like that today, same person and contact.
DeleteHeather
Honestly Simple Soaps
I just got one today too!
Deletelook, yahoo IPs are not private. When someone sends you an email like this, check the originating IP.
DeleteThis person is still at large this time the alias is Melissa Adcock, with shipper Patrick Lawson. I continued their game for about a week and was impressed yet terrified that there maybe some people that do fall for this scam as they actually provided a valid credit card which allowed for a $1926 charge. I issued a refund before their claim could come through.
DeleteThanks for posting this, I just did a search for her email after receiving a response back from the quote I sent. Mine was also from "Carrie" with the same kind of order. =\
ReplyDeleteYes Tammy it is true! We as small home biz moms, WHO mainly work from home, work to hard to allow scammers to Take us under. Wishing you the best in your business.
DeleteYep! Me too. Glad you've posted about this -- thank you!
ReplyDeleteKathy you are very welcome! As work at home moms and small business owners we have to look out for each other.Wishing you the best in your business.
DeleteThank you for posting this! =)
ReplyDeleteThis person just emailed me this weekend requesting to purchase a large order--same as every one else above.
I thought it seemed fishy....
They are still going by the name Carrie Holmes with
all the same info above.
You are very welcome. We Have to stay protected by scammers as best we can. They bring harm to Our small businesses. Wishing you the best in your business.
DeleteThanks so much for posting this! You never know...we want the big orders but need to ask for all the information you listed...Thanks
ReplyDeleteWe just received an identical email from this Carrie wanting to place a large online order with us : (. It's amazing how people scheme and scam out there, but after googling the address we found your warning and many many others! Thanx...Apparently, this scam has been going on for some time now. God only knows how many people fall victim to this person. I hope they get caught and prosecuted, but it proves how vigilant us small business owners have to be, especially online. It also proves just how depraved some people are : (
ReplyDeleteThank you is all I can say. My online business received an order today from Carrie Holmes from Amsterdam. This order would have really been a great one for us. Out of curiosity I Googled their address and that is when I found the words SCAM. I read on and felt bad and glad. Bad that i wasn't getting the sale and glad that I did my research. I feel sorry for those who were duped by these people and I pray that they are soon caught. We received this order today and were waiting for their response with the quote we gave now at least we are armed with this information. Thank you again
ReplyDeleteWell I guess i was stupid, I got scammed! of coarse i did not read this till now, I just thought would try to look up her name and I came across this, She had me doing all the work for her, getting quotes for her placing the order for her, she even gave me 2 credit card numbers to run,
ReplyDeleteSo does any one have answers how to handle this, i am new to the biz who do i go to so clear my name?
Please send me a response
Thank you
ReplyDeleteWell I guess that I was taken advantage of also. I stopped the order before it shipped so I still have the product but lost money as Carrie had me Western Union 1/2 of the freight cost for 1/2 of the product order then Carrie put a hold on the shipment (Thank goodness). I wish I had read these articles before I jumped in as I was like a few of you thinking that my website was finally getting going. It really makes you stop and wonder about people and I guess I won't be so trusting in the future. Thank you.
Well it would seem that Carrie is now attempting to pull her scams as Melissa Adcock - email address: melggbstores@yahoo.com and she is using the carrier, LongSpeedFreight - e-mail address: contact person: Patrick Lawson. She actually requested for me to give an additional $750 for another transaction she had with LongSpeedFreight through a Money Gram/Western Union/Money Order. Here is the last e-mail I received from her and I do not intend on replying to any more that she sends to me:
ReplyDeleteHello,
Thanks for the total quote of my order.The total cost of my order is okay with me and I'm ready to pay the bills and want you to send me an invoice via email and i will advise with my Credit Card for you to charge for the payment of my order. But, i just got a response from my shipping Agent that He cannot receive payment via credit or debit card from me at the moment due to some circumstance beyond their control. I want you to help me Charge another $750USD to my shipping agent who is going to pick up my ordered items from you.
The $1180.98 USD that will be sent to the shipping agent is for the shipping of my order plus other items i ordered from different countries which will be deducted from my credit card. Also, I'm compensating you with the sum of $150 USD for the transfer fee and for surcharge. Please note that i should have given the shipping agent my credit card for him to deduct the shipping funds but He told me that he doesn't have the facilities to charge or debit credit card at the moment,so that's why i bring my vote of confidence in you and i don't want you to betray the vote of confidence i put in you. I want you to transfer the funds to him after you have make the charges and the money charged from my credit card has cleared your account, then you can now make the transfer to the agent via western union. I will have love to do this my self but there no Western union here around me,So the charges you'll make on my credit card will be:
Order Fee ($2,240 USD
Agent fee with shipping fare ($1180.98 USD)
Transfer Fee plus Your compensation ($150 USD)
Total:($3,570.98 USD)
Note: My credit card will be charged for the amounts above. Please do get back to me if you are in the office right now so that i can forward my credit card details to you, then you can charge full amount and transfer the agent shipping funds to Him via western union or money gram any that is closer to you.
Hope you understand?
Thanks for your co-operation & understanding. This is the beginning of a long time business relationship together.
Hope to read from you ASAP
Thanks and God Bless you
Hello Serena,
DeletePlease delete my comment that I made under my business name, Elysian Organics. As I read another poster state...you don't want your business name to get associated with this scammer. I would sincerely appreciate it if you would delete my comment, or post as anonymous. Thanks!
Melissa Adcock also tried this me but I was wary from the start. I questioned why I would have to pay the shipping and got the same response as other people. I knew nothing was going to leave my store until it was all paid for and she did provide a credit card number but it was declined. So with a little digging we came across these warnings and it just confirmed that age old saying - if it sounds too good to be true...
ReplyDeleteVery Nice website. I just finished mine and i was looking for some ideas and your website gave me some.Wholesale Army Navy
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, the more we band together on these scam artist. the better security we will have in our small growing businesses.
ReplyDeleteThank you Carlene, I have been designing my candles and making my aromarherapy bsthing items since I stated my smalk biz in 2006. Your mire ejem welcome to add my website to your daba, to warch my commercials, entre free giveswsys, plsy fun hand and more ;)
ReplyDelete