Hey Everyone,

I received an email inquiry today that seems a bit odd to me. The customer first wanted to know if I could ship internationally. I told them not at this time. They were also very interested in paying only via credit card.

I told them that I could ship overseas on my own and setup a invoice for them that could be paid via PayPal by credit card, but their response was:
"let me choose order i want and i can only pay with credit card and i will use my freight forwarder to come for pick up after my payment clear."

Seems to me I've seen some sort of scam that involves shipping arranged by the receiver. Does this sound like a legit concern on my part? Thanks...

Originally Posted by chipj I received an email inquiry today that seems a bit odd to me. The customer first wanted to know if I could ship internationally. I told them not at this time. They were also very interested in paying only via credit card. I told them that I could ship overseas on my own and setup a invoice for them that could be paid via PayPal by credit card, but their response was: "let me choose order i want and i can only pay with credit card and i will use my freight forwarder to come for pick up after my payment clear."

I agree that their request to use a freight forwarder sounds really odd.

It looks like you have a Smug account, so why can't they just order from your site? Smug does ship internationally although there are some countries that aren't in the ship to list. Here's the help page listing the countries they ship to - http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/87663.

--- Denise

I would ask them what city and country they are in....as you need that any way to charge for shipping......as a matter of fact I would ask for their name and address to give an estimate for shipping...if they are not willing to divulge that then let it go. that way you can decide if you can do business with in that country.....Also tell them that you ONLY ACCEPT CC's THRU PAYPAL ...... This will stop a lot of scammers dead in their tracks.

I plead ingnorance to the shipping question. I have not had an international order yet, but assumed this was the case because those outside of the U.S. have complained that they didn't have a way to process and ship to non-US country. I guess I'll have to look into this more.

In any regard, I'll tell the prospective client that I can ship to their country (based on the list you provided) and see what happens.
Thanks.

Originally Posted by denisegoldberg I agree that their request to use a freight forwarder sounds really odd. It looks like you have a Smug account, so why can't they just order from your site? Smug does ship internationally although there are some countries that aren't in the ship to list. Here's the help page listing the countries they ship to - http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/87663. --- Denise

Originally Posted by chipj I plead ingnorance to the shipping question. I have not had an international order yet, but assumed this was the case because those outside of the U.S. have complained that they didn't have a way to process and ship to non-US country. I guess I'll have to look into this more. In any regard, I'll tell the prospective client that I can ship to their country (based on the list you provided) and see what happens. Thanks.

We've been shipping photos to hundreds of countries for many years now. That's the easy and safe way, use our shopping cart