Due Diligence Saves Headaches

By Allison Berman
December 8, 2008

On October 24th, I received an e-mail from a Kenneth Ward requesting to purchase 400 clocks. As much as I would like that to be an everyday occurrence, it's not. And yet I didn't pour a glass of wine to celebrate. Our truncated e-mail dialogue over the next several days went something like this ...

Me: I received your e-mail requesting 400 blue and sage clocks. Please let me know where you would like them shipped.

Mr. W: I do not want you to ship the clocks, they will be picked up as soon as you have them ready. E-mail me the total price.

I asked for an address where I could send a proof, and indicated since all products were custom, I would require payment to begin production. Instead of receiving a proof, he changed his order to 150 clocks, and if happy with the product, would order the other 250. He would pay in full, up front, by credit card, and gave me "his" shipping company's information.

The e-mail address coastalshippingdept@live.com made me nervous. I prefer seeing e-mail addresses that are @TheNameOfACompany.com as opposed to "@live, @gmail or @aol. And then I saw the contact was "Mr. Johnny Bravo." I kid you not. The address was in West Africa. And Mr. Ward concluded by asking me to "add the shipping cost to the price of the garment racks," and e-mail him with the total cost.

The one and only Johnny Bravo

Johnny Bravo? West Africa? Garment racks? It was obviously a scam, but I still e-mailed "Johnny Bravo" at the "shipping company," curious how they planned to take my money.

Johnny Bravo (I can't even type the name without laughing) replied: "Shipping costs is going to be $3,800 ... prepaid ... via Western Union Money Transfer to our financial manager ... The delivery address: 38 Shipping Ave., Accra Ghana, 00233." (Yes, Shipping Avenue).

Mr. Ward agreed to pre-payment, so maybe he had a stolen credit card or identity? I searched unsuccessfully for the person whose name was on the credit card to confirm he was a willing buyer. When that didn't work, I called my credit card company, but since the card wasn't issued through my bank, they couldn't help.

PayPal explained, as long as Mr. Ward filled out their online invoice, even if the card was stolen, insurance would protect the card holder and me. It would just be a big headache. I e-mailed Mr. Ward the invoice and never heard back.

I have since Googled "Acra Ghana 00233," and found stories of people left with products that were never collected by the fictitious shipping company, and out the money they wired via Western Union.

Moral of my story: Victims of this scam found time to share their stories to protect us. Surely we aren't too busy to do our due diligence no matter how good a deal seems. In fact, that is probably when it's most important. When things seem too good to be true, they usually are.

Allison Berman, an artist and mother of two, handpaints custom home accessories for interior designers and private customers. She works out of her home studio in Warwick, NY. See her collection at www.withlovealib.com. She can be reached at ali@withlovealib.com. Her column appears Tuesdays.