Could this be a scam? Buyer in Poland wants to import soap

I recently started a website for my handmade all natural bath products small business. Until now I have done all of my selling either through word of mouth or at craft fairs. Part of advertising small businesses is using instagram and pintrest to get people to your website. I have been 'followed' by people in australia, japan, germany, etc. I was not planning on doing any international shipping because it sounds like a pain. I got this email from a potential customer in Poland which is making me rethink that position. However I am concerned that this could end up being some sort of a scam. Here is the email exchange so far....


Hello,
I have a freight forwarder that will come for the pick-up from your location, after i have placed the order and make the payment and they will cover all the custom paper works.
Await your reply back.
Thanks.
Weronica.
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On Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 12:33 PM </> wrote:
Weronika,

I am so sorry, I do not currently ship internationally.

Thank you for your interest!



On Wed, Jun 19, 2019, 9:27 AM Weronika O Bartosz <[email protected]> wrote:
Hello,
I want to order from you shoppe to my store in Warsaw, Poland, do you accept credit card as form of payment?
i will be waiting to read back from you at your earliest convenience.
Thanks.
Weronika.

I did basic searches and could not find any known scams under the name or email address, but we all know that doesnt mean a whole lot. The name is popular in poland so I found a lot of people who it could potentially be, but none that had a shop, but I know several people who sell things that have no online presence as far as their business. It would be interesting to be able to tell customers my products are imported to poland lol, and who knows maybe it could potentially be a great thing for my business. I'd hate to turn down a client based on random fear.

Any thoughts on if/how I should proceed would be great!

[AlanJones]

Its definitely a scam.

The scammer will ask you to take an additional payment to cover the shipping and pay it to his shipper (which is him using another email address).

He will then use stolen credit cards to pay you in the hope that by the time the payment is identified as fraudulent and the card companies reverse it, you will already have sent the extra payment.

The best thing to do is just block him and don't respond any further.

[Perfect, thank you! Didnt want to waste a bunch of time to figure that out for sure, but I figured it probably was

quote="AlanJones"]Its definitely a scam.

The scammer will ask you to take an additional payment to cover the shipping and pay it to his shipper (which is him using another email address).

He will then use stolen credit cards to pay you in the hope that by the time the payment is identified as fraudulent and the card companies reverse it, you will already have sent the extra payment.

The best thing to do is just block him and don't respond any further.[/quote]

I did basic searches and could not find any known scams under the name or email address, but we all know that doesnt mean a whole lot. The name is popular in poland so I found a lot of people who it could potentially be, but none that had a shop, but I know several people who sell things that have no online presence as far as their business. It would be interesting to be able to tell customers my products are imported to poland lol, and who knows maybe it could potentially be a great thing for my business. I'd hate to turn down a client based on random fear.

These crooks can and do change email addresses regularly . When performing "DUE DILIGENCE", its better to google phrases from the emails. Basically their English sucks, so its always possible to find a good phrase to google . Here is the exact same scam from 2016. Hope that helps.




‎06-16-2016 07:10 PM

Beware, It’s A Scam

https://community.shopify.com/c/Shopify ... d-p/204236