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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    New York City
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    Strange Clients...

    Hello WHT,

    I'm posting today to share my experience of a handful of client's I've had. The most recent one was a few days ago. A client signed up for a plan and passed our fraud checking systems (MaxMind). After taking a look manually, it was easy to tell that the client was fraudulent because they put in completely random details which don't make sense. This client in particular named himself John Smith who lives on 123 Sunshine Street. The client payed via PayPal and immediately opened up a ticket asking why his VPS was not set up (we don't offer instant setup). I replied that the order has not passed our manual fraud check and a refund was given. I logged into PayPal and issued a manual refund. The client responds in a few hours stating that he did not get the refund and immediately started demanding his money. I showed proof that PayPal refunded the full balance however John Smith refuses to believe what I said. He claims that the money was not refunded to his credit card and that he wants his money back. I asked him to call PayPal as this issue is out of my control. He then continues to message me via tickets and live chat demanding his money. I decided to block his IP altogether and forget about this issue. I would let this go if it happened once, but this happens practically every week. Do people really have nothing better to do in their lives? I'm wondering if any other host experiences these kind of problems.


    Thanks.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    4,533
    We just get people asking to be sponsored for a VPS or dedicated server every time we advertise even if there site gets about 10 visitors per month.

    Maybe it is the same person every week doing it to you? I am not sure we have ever had that issue, although we are in different main markets.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
    Posts
    448
    Quote Originally Posted by Spunkyasp View Post
    Hello WHT,

    I'm posting today to share my experience of a handful of client's I've had. The most recent one was a few days ago. A client signed up for a plan and passed our fraud checking systems (MaxMind). After taking a look manually, it was easy to tell that the client was fraudulent because they put in completely random details which don't make sense. This client in particular named himself John Smith who lives on 123 Sunshine Street. The client payed via PayPal and immediately opened up a ticket asking why his VPS was not set up (we don't offer instant setup). I replied that the order has not passed our manual fraud check and a refund was given. I logged into PayPal and issued a manual refund. The client responds in a few hours stating that he did not get the refund and immediately started demanding his money. I showed proof that PayPal refunded the full balance however John Smith refuses to believe what I said. He claims that the money was not refunded to his credit card and that he wants his money back. I asked him to call PayPal as this issue is out of my control. He then continues to message me via tickets and live chat demanding his money. I decided to block his IP altogether and forget about this issue. I would let this go if it happened once, but this happens practically every week. Do people really have nothing better to do in their lives? I'm wondering if any other host experiences these kind of problems.


    Thanks.
    What a scammer

    He's probably hoping you write him a money order for the refund amount.
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  4. #4
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    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by techjr View Post
    We just get people asking to be sponsored for a VPS or dedicated server every time we advertise even if there site gets about 10 visitors per month.

    Maybe it is the same person every week doing it to you? I am not sure we have ever had that issue, although we are in different main markets.
    You could be right. The IP addresses are different but that doesn't really mean anything. They seem to come up with a different scenario each time, which gets pretty annoying after a while.

    Quote Originally Posted by Winky View Post
    What a scammer

    He's probably hoping you write him a money order for the refund amount.
    People will do anything for money these days. The first time this happened I actually believed it was a legitimate error on my part. Spend a long time talking to PayPal and making sure the refund was given.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    448
    My personal experience with PayPal is that they're not too good at fraud protection. Not sure if they've changed their methods recently, but I've been paid by stolen credit cards a few times through PayPal.
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  6. #6
    Join Date
    Feb 2005
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    I'm guessing the MaxMind did not do the job?
    Respectfully,
    Mr. Terrence

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Sep 2008
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    Quote Originally Posted by THAMAN View Post
    I'm guessing the MaxMind did not do the job?
    I guess you can say that. MaxMind is by no way an alternative to manual fraud checking. While it is good help (analyzing risk score, viewing general statistics) I never let an order pass without manually reviewing it. The reason this got through (I assume) is because the city and state matched the IP.

  8. #8
    We just get people asking to be sponsored for a VPS or dedicated server every time we advertise even if there site gets about 10 visitors per month.
    Funny you mentioned this... we receive these once in a while too.

    Also, have gotten people signing up again with the same coupons after their account is due for normal monthly fees.
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  9. #9
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    We too have the same problem about twice a month. Someone signs-up and doesn't pay. Or pays and doesn't uses service. Or does like typical John Smith.

    Probably these are guys planning to start an illegal site and they think twice and revise their decision midway.

    Or they are so annoyed by us (don't know what for) that they keep on harrowing us without any reason.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jul 2002
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    Quote Originally Posted by chennaihomie View Post
    Someone signs-up and doesn't pay. Or pays and doesn't uses service.
    Usually means they're "testing" the phished paypal details before moving on to higher ticket items.
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  11. #11
    Join Date
    Aug 2010
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    Quote Originally Posted by THAMAN View Post
    I'm guessing the MaxMind did not do the job?
    Maxmind should not be used as only fraud verification of orders. If you're using an IP/address in same country, you can lower it's risk score.

    However, it's telephone verification limits the fraudlent orders passing through to a much larger extent.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2010
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    1,030
    The answer? It's because you even take the time to talk to them.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
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    Quote Originally Posted by othellotech View Post
    Usually means they're "testing" the phished paypal details before moving on to higher ticket items.
    You may be right, but in my experience, I've never seen even one of them turn around to do so.

    So, I assumed they were either joking with us or just playing with their pocket money!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Modesto California
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    I used to have the same issues until I started using 2checkout.com. Ever since then, I really haven't had much issues with fraud (knocks on wood).
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  15. #15
    Join Date
    Aug 2009
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    Just tell him to contact paypal. If he launches a complaint with paypal he will loose if you have refunded.
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  16. #16
    Manual checks are the best, no doubt about it
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  17. #17
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
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    Sounds annoying, he's just an annoying scammer, they're all over the industry unfortunately.

    We offer instant setup but surprisingly don't have many fraudulent orders, MaxMind is set pretty high as well (because it was flagging 90% false-positives at first). I still manually check orders which look slightly dodgy.

    And I just had a sales question for 100IP's across different subnets, with no justification, sigh.
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