Scam or Legit?

[Gumby]

I recently ordered a product online and the merchant immediately charged my credit card. It was a seller with whom I had never had any previous dealings.

The shipping estimate was 5 to 8 business days, so I waited 10 business days and emailed them. They said that they couldn't get the product, so they couldn't ship it to me. They also said that they could not reverse the credit card transaction and asked if I took Zelle or Cashback. That sounded sketchy, so I decided to just challenge the transaction through my card issuer. They reversed the charge and credited my account.

I note also that, about ten days after I ordered the product from this seller, I was contacted by my card issuer about a fraudulent transaction on my card, which required me to get a new card number. This may or may not be related. It has happened a few times before over the years.

I've never run into a situation like this and I wonder if this is just some sort of new scam. I don't do Zelle or Cashback, but I understand that you have to provide banking information to the sender.

Anybody in the know about such things?

 

[njhowie]

They also said that they could not reverse the credit card transaction and asked if I took Zelle or Cashback.

Scam. Of course they could reverse the credit card transaction, if they were legit.

 

[Aerides]

For Zelle you do not have to provide banking info. You just need the person, email, etc., and if they are enrolled in Zelle, it's not exposed to the sender or receiver.

The seller your case broke two cardinal rules: Don't list things to sell that you don't have, and/or can't easily source via your trusted dropshippers (bleh, but it works). And, don't charge UNTIL the item ships. I'd expect they are out of business before too long, and quite likely asked you if they could zelle you the refund because their merchant account was already in trouble.

PS if you want to PM or share the name of the suspect business, I'd love to have a dig!

 

[Gumby]

Scam. Of course they could reverse the credit card transaction, if they were legit.

That's what I thought, but the Zelle or Cashback request was a new one for me. Seems like a way to extend the scam further, but I don't know.

 

[braumeister]

Scam. Of course they could reverse the credit card transaction, if they were legit.

+1

 

[Gumby]

For Zelle you do not have to provide banking info. You just need the person, email, etc., and if they are enrolled in Zelle, it's not exposed to the sender or receiver.

The seller your case broke two cardinal rules: Don't list things to sell that you don't have, and/or can't easily source via your trusted dropshippers (bleh, but it works). And, don't charge UNTIL the item ships. I'd expect they are out of business before too long, and quite likely asked you if they could zelle you the refund because their merchant account was already in trouble.

PS if you want to PM or share the name of the suspect business, I'd love to have a dig!

That makes sense. I guess I was on alert because of the fraudulent transaction issue which had occurred only a few days before.

 

[audreyh1]

Wow, nasty! I avoid dealing directly with unknown online sellers.

 

[MarieIG]

Another vote for Scam.

I have never had a legitimate seller that could not credit my card. (I don't have Zelle or Cashback either but would be suspicious of any alleged seller which requested additional "financial" information.)

 

[Mr. Tightwad]

Scam. Stay away from Zelle unless you know and have confidence in the person/entity.

 

[jazz4cash]

I’d say scam also and I bet if you consider carefully there were red flags before you even ordered. Was it the sellers website or more like eBay?
When it happened to me a google search for a specific discontinued item led me to the website of a seller I’d never heard offering brand new items at half price. I’d actually purchased the item in the same manner before but not at half price. I knew it wasn’t legit but I ordered anyway because they took paypal. When the item never arrived, Paypal reversed the charge.

 

[Gumby]

I’d say scam also and I bet if you consider carefully there were red flags before you even ordered. Was it the sellers website or more like eBay?
When it happened to me a google search for a specific discontinued item led me to the website of a seller I’d never heard offering brand new items at half price. I’d actually purchased the item in the same manner before but not at half price. I knew it wasn’t legit but I ordered anyway because they took paypal. When the item never arrived, Paypal reversed the charge.

It was the seller's website. I don't know about the pricing, as the young wife looked for the item on her tablet and then gave me the website and told me to go to the desktop and buy it. So I did. I'm sure it was the cheapest one she could find, because that's just how she rolls. I personally would just have gone to Amazon because it is quick and easy and I trust them.

 

[jollystomper]

Scam-a-licious, for sure - at the very least, I have never head of *any* merchant not able to reverse a credit card transaction.

 

[Badger]

Scam. At least you got your money back and a new card so you should be OK.
I had a similar experience and had to resolve it in a similar way. Anything I buy on-line now goes through Amazon and maybe PayPal to hopefully give an extra level of protection. I also don't make expensive purchases unless in person.

Cheers!

 

[Chuckanut]

Be careful using Zelle for anything. I certainly would give out my Zelle information to anybody I suspect was trying to scam me.

Do a search on Zelle scams and frauds. It should be called the Zelle Jungle, IMO.

I use Venmo and I tie my Venmo account to a local credit union checking account that I only use for Venmo and T-Mobile payments. I don’t keep a lot of money in that account.

 

[MichaelB]

They also said that they could not reverse the credit card transaction and asked if I took Zelle or Cashback.

This raises flags.With credit card transactions the merchant receives less than 100% of the total transaction value, so refunding the entire transaction amount in cash would be an automatic loss for them. Merchants just don’t do this.

Zelle uses bank account and email address info, so accepting a refund by Zelle gives the merchant access to your Zelle / bank link. Banks are still treating much Zelle based fraud as not subject to Electronic Finds Transfer Act, and they push back on claims. For that reason Zelle use really needs to be limited to trustworthy contacts, and even then extreme vigilance is called for.

 

[Jeffman52]

Scammers. I had something similar. I ordered something but within an hour I had this nagging feeling that it was a scam. I had used paypal to pay for it but I waited too long to reverse it. So then I had to wait to see if it would actually come in, then when it didnt, I went through the Paypal process to get my money back. They made me go to the seller through email who kept making promises he couldnt keep. He wanted my venmo account info to reverse it and rather than give him that I said, find my email on venmo and just send me the money. I will see it. That was never going to happen. Eventually I sent all that to Paypal and just as they were getting ready to reverse it, he gave them a tracking number for my area showing it as delivered.


I then had to go through UPS (which took about 3 weeks) to show that although the tracking number was real it was not to me, nor to my residence. They sent me an email that said that and Paypal then actually reversed it. I think I was lucky because too many horror stories out there where people couldn't get Paypal to reverse things.


Lesson learned. Always do your research on where you are buying from and make sure they are legit.

 

[easysurfer]

I usually limit myself to well known places like Amazon, ebay, Target.

If I buy direct, that isn't until after I'm done some checking out online to maker sure place seems legit.

 

[jazz4cash]

Do a search on Zelle scams and frauds. It should be called the Zelle Jungle, IMO.

Could you elaborate? I did search but I did not find much. Mostly problems related to not being able to retrieve a payment sent by error. Also responding to unknown requests for payment. I push payments to my barber and family members but generally avoid transactions with unknown individuals.

 

[Walt34]

This is one of the scenarios where a "virtual credit card" shines, such as the type offered by Capital One Bank. I have a tad over twenty "virtual cards" with them for various vendors, the vast majority well known such as Home Depot and Horizon Hobby, but a few others that are lesser known. The thing with the virtual cards is that it's valid only at the one specified vendor, and you can put in a date beyond which the card will no longer be honored even at that vendor.

And of course you can pull the card at any time. That's why I used one for my cell phone account, so when I decide to pull the plug on that phone, I also pull the plug on the credit card used for it. There won't be any hassles getting them to stop charging it because they won't be able to. This is great for subscriptions of any kind.