Shipping Scam Targeting Businesses

I'm so glad you were able to avoid being ripped off also. The scammers are getting smarter. They never used to specify product, but now they are so it appears to be a legit order early on.

I am sick to my stomach…I had gut feeling that I should research the shipping company that the business in the Netherlands is choosing over USPS, UPS, FedEx and DHL. I've ordered supplies necessary to fulfill this order too. As a small business, that hurts considering they were planning to "order" close to $3,000 value in product. Thank God this didn't go any further. SHAMEFUL INDIVIDUALS!!!!
This was my last email from them:

AMANDA SKINNEAR
9:21 AM (3 hours ago)

to me
Hi,
Thanks for your reply back with the total quote of my order,I really appreciate you getting back to me.We have experienced lots of difficulties when it comes to receiving shipment to our address here in The Netherlands, We're located in a very remote area of the city, which cause us a lot of hindrance in receiving shipment in the past. I want you to contact my shipper which i use every time i purchase order worldwide via the below e-mail address about my order [email protected] with the weight and dimension inclusive the value for insurance quoting my customer ID AA357429522A. They will deliver the shipment to me door to door,their cost will include the custom clearance and handling cost with my order. They will come pick my order up at your location when the shipment is ready. I will need you to obtain a quote and tell them that i want to Insure the package and I will like you to get back to me with overall cost of the items with the details from my shipper. Once I have these details, I will get back to you with my credit card details immediately for payment.
God Bless you (Amen),
Kind Regards,
Olivia

This was their "Order"

Hello,
Thanks for your response. I want to order for the following items listed below for my customer's here, I want you to reply back with the total cost plus shipping quote. We're ready and can't wait to receive these wonderful products if yours here.
Your utmost reply back with the total quote will be highly appreciated.


ITEMS, WE'RE INTERESTED IN ORDERING IS LISTED BELOW, GET BACK WITH TOTAL QUOTE PLUS SHIPPING:


REVIVAL GIFT PACKAGES - Choose 4
QTY.........................................20

GREEN TEA & COCONUT
QTY.........................................20

LAVENDER + GRAPESEED
QTY.........................................20


GRAPEFRUIT + MINT
QTY.........................................20

COFFEE + ROSEHIP - 8oz
QTY.........................................20

CINNAMON + SUGAR LIP SCRUB
QTY.........................................20


...ADDRESS FOR THE QUOTE........

Haarlemmerdijk 180C,
Centrum,
1013 JJ Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Hope to read back from you with the total cost and we can proceed and finalized my order.
Have a blissful day,
Amanda

Email address they used:
AMANDA SKINNEAR ([email protected])

They signed emails using both the name Amanda & Olivia

Thanks for this Posting! The same thing happen to me. I did research and came across this article.

Dealing with this issue right now. Person contacted me last week interested in an order. I ordered supplies to get everything together and then received the email about not wanting to go through UPS, immediately made me suspect:

From: OLIVIA MCGREGOR

Hi,

Thanks for your reply back with the total quote of my order,I really appreciate you getting back to me.

We have experienced lots of difficulties when it comes to receiving shipment to our address here in The Netherlands, We're located in a very remote area of the city, which cause us a lot of hindrance in receiving shipment in the past. I want you to contact my shipper which i use every time i purchase order worldwide via the below e-mail address about my order [email protected] with the weight and dimension inclusive the value for insurance quoting my customer ID #AA357429522A. They will deliver the shipment to me door to door, their cost will include the custom clearance and handling cost with my order. They will come pick my order up at your location when the shipment is ready. I will need you to obtain a quote and tell them that i want to Insure the package and I will like you to get back to me with overall cost of the items with the details from my shipper.

Once I have these details, I will get back to you with my credit card details immediately for payment.
God Bless you (Amen),

Kind Regards,
Olivia

This was my response,

Good morning Olivia,

I did a google search on the email address you provided and it stated that [email protected] was unfortunately not a reliable company to do shipping with. If you would like to still continue the order I can still do so through UPS, all packages come with tracking and insurance. With payment through Paypal. Please reply back at your earliest convenience.

She then responds with this.

Hello,

I have been having difficulties in the past. I'm in a very remote area of the city which make it hard for me to receive shipment in the past,not until i started using the shipping agent.They're reliable and their service are favourable. They have been helping me with shipment for my oversea order for the past 5 months or so,i want you to proceed and send an e-mail to my shipper and they'll get back to you with my shipping quote.

Await your reply back

Thanks
God bless you

*UPDATE* I sent this response back

Good morning Olivia,

Unfortunately I will not be able to ship with that business. I called some businesses within the area of the address that you quoted for shipment and they state that they use UPS just fine and do not have any issues. So if you still wish to do business via UPS that is still a possibility. If not, unfortunately I will not be able to fulfill your request. Take care.

I also sent a picture of the businesses around that was near the address they used for the shipment quote. It is definitely not in a remote area. It looks like a very well known area that does a lot of business. I have yet to receive a response.

So needless to say. I'm pissed that I fell for this and ordered way more supplies than I needed. But in the end I guess it works out for me because now I have enough to probably carry me into the next year. LOL. I'm thankful for this site, it sure did save me a huge headache and financial loss.

THank you so much for posting. SAME EXACT EMAILS FROM HER!!! I suggested that she send me a money order via mail and the emails immediately stopped. If I didn't see this post her order would have put me out of business. Thank you Thank you Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please don't tell the scammer why you can't use her shipper. As soon as you figure out it's a scam, quit replying and give no clue what tipped you off.

Thank you all for posting about this Amanda Skinnear. I was doing a lot of research about shipping overseas. I am so glad that my gut told me to look her up. This would have cost my small business 4000. It is sad to see other people doing this to other people.

FROM: AMANDA SKINNEAR ([email protected])

Hello,
I want to place an order from you, to our store in The Netherlands. I want to know if you can ship here and accept credit card as a form of payment.
Reply back asap
Thanks

Hello,
Thanks for your response. I want to order for the following items listed below for my customer's here, I want you to reply back with the total cost plus shipping quote. We're ready and can't wait to receive these wonderful products if yours here.
Your utmost reply back with the total quote will be highly appreciated.


ITEMS, WE'RE INTERESTED IN ORDERING IS LISTED BELOW, GET BACK WITH TOTAL QUOTE PLUS SHIPPING:


[Ordered 10 products, each in a quantity of 10]


...ADDRESS FOR THE QUOTE........

Haarlemmerdijk 180C,
Centrum,
1013 JJ Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Hope to read back from you with the total cost and we can proceed and finalized my order.
Have a blissful day,
AMANDA

Hi,
Thanks for your reply back with the total quote of my order,I really appreciate you getting back to me.We have experienced lots of difficulties when it comes to receiving shipment to our address here in The Netherlands, We're located in a very remote area of the city, which cause us a lot of hindrance in receiving shipment in the past. I want you to contact my shipper which i use every time i purchase order worldwide via the below e-mail address about my order [email protected] with the weight and dimension inclusive the value for insurance quoting my customer ID #AA357429522A. They will deliver the shipment to me door to door,their cost will include the custom clearance and handling cost with my order. They will come pick my order up at your location when the shipment is ready. I will need you to obtain a quote and tell them that i want to Insure the package and I will like you to get back to me with overall cost of the items with the details from my shipper. Once I have these details, I will get back to you with my credit card details immediately for payment.
God Bless you (Amen),
Kind Regards,
Amanda

These scammers seem to be getting more aggressive. I have received four email inquiries in the past month from Amanda Skinnear ([email protected]). I replied to the first one indicating that I wasn't able to help her as I don't ship wholesale orders internationally. She offered to buy them at retail prices. I didn't respond, so "she" sent 2 more inquiries through my contact form using the same email address but different last names.

After I didn't reply to those she began contacting me using a new name and email. She is now Stephanie (or Steph) Brook [email protected]

Exact same emails and formatting as the last set. Beware.

thank you so much for these posts. I was contacted by her too and something didn't seem right when they didn't care about the wholesale prices and then the courier company with a gmail account lol as soon as I googled it these forums came up.

I received the same email as everyone else has noted on the forum - should this reported somewhere ? considering they use the same email address and email all the time.

Annoyed that I wasted time weighing my products and getting shipping quotes grrrr.

Hello oliveR,
Please do not report email addresses used by scammers. If they lose an email account it only takes a minute or two to create a new account and continue with the scam. When they keep using the same email account it is easy for a victim to do a search and confirm the scam.

Ohhhhh

I unfortunately fell in the scam and paid them the mere 700$ shipping fees!
Now that i know it's scam, i find it so obvious that it was a scam, i don't know why i didn't wake up before!!

Anyways, is there something i can do now ?
What do you suggest ?

Many thanks !

Can you post the scammer's email and/or phone numbers? If you can, please post an email from them with your information removed to help warn others .

What country are you in? You need to file local police reports, too. If you're in the US, file a complaint with IC3
http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx
They may not do anything, but the more people report it the better the chances.

Hi,

thanks for the advices.

Here is information about the scammers names and emails:

Name of the Scam buyer: MRS AMANDA SKINNEAR
Email of the scam buyer: [email protected]
Address of the scam buyer:
Amanda Skinnear
Haarlemmerdijk 180C,
Centrum,
1013 JJ Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Name of the scam shipper: Mark Lawrenson
Email of the scam shipper: [email protected]


One of the message from them:

Sujet : Re: INSTRUCTION ON HOW TO PROCEED AND MAKE TRANSFER OF THE SHIPPING FEE FOR MRS AMANDA SKINNEAR ORDER
Date : Fri, 16 Oct 2015 17:03:55 +0100
De : Mark Lawrenson <[email protected]>

Dear Client,
Thanks for your mail, we really appreciate it. The beneficiary address is listed below:

>
> Dear Client,
> Thanks for your mail, We really appreciate it. We are responding concerning your request for bank details to complete the payment for customer ID #AA357429522A. We want you to expedite the payment and get back to us with the scanned copy of the payment slip for confirmation. You can proceed with the payment as you have two option to get the wire transfer processed,
> 1, Either by doing it via online if you have online banking service.
> OR
> 2, By walking into the bank with cash at hand to transfer
>
> Find below our account department details were the fund will be wire transfer to:
>
> ACCOUNT HOLDER'S NAME : LADONA CHANEY
> BANK NAME : PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
> BANK ADDRESS : BOX 1432 ALEXANDRIA VA 22313, USA.
> ACCOUNT NUMBER : 5019343010
> ROUTING NUMBER : 256078446
> Beneficiary address: 352510 E 780 RD,
CUSHING, OK, 74023
Noted (BW)

>
> Immediately we confirm the transfer, we'll computer generate the shipping label and attach it to your Email to print out and paste on the packages to be picked up. Our agent will be at your address, the same day for the pick up when the shipment is ready.
> We will be waiting to read back from you with the details of the transfer and immediately we confirmed it, We can proceed to generate the shipping label and attach it to you to print out.
>
> Yours Sincerely,
>
> Mark Lawrenson.



Part of another message:

DETAILS TO MAKE PAYMENT TO VIA WESTERN UNION:

NAME: MARK CARVER
ADDRESS: EULESS, TEXAS, 76039.




Part of another message:

Details to make the transfer to at Western Union Money Transfer Outlet:

NAME: THOMAS RAYNOR
ADDRESS; CLINTON, NORTH CAROLINA, 28328