Are scammers getting better or is this a real order?

[rendered.co]

Alright, I'm going to preface this with the fact that I've been in this business for 15 years and have seen every scam under the sun try to be pulled on us. That being said, this one is tricky. I'd love to hear if anyone else has run into something similar to it and if you think it's a scam or a real order. So here it goes...

About three weeks ago I received a call from a person asking if I can ship to Canada (we are based in Portland, Or). I mentioned that we haven't done it in the past, but might be able to work something out. He said that it was fine if we can't since he is in Oregon a lot and can come pick up the products. He emailed me shortly after that with some designs and asking for pricing on 1280 pieces, assorted styles, with the same print. I got back to him with some shirt options to check out and he got back to me with quite a few different styles that he liked, along with the proper colors and a generic size run of 5 of each size.

I sent him pricing for all the items he picked out, and we went back and forth with different shirt options and prices for about a week. I didn't hear from him for about a week until he got back to me this Monday with his final order. He had mocked up his designs in Word along with the shirt colors and ink colors he wanted. It was very thorough. This is where I started to think it wasn't a scam, he even sent me the EPS files for all of his designs.

Yesterday we discussed that we require payment in full before production. He said he was going to go to the bank to see about getting a check. At this point the order total is around $9000-$10000. I hadn't sent a final invoice yet so I told him to hold off on the check until we finalize everything. While going back and forth today he says "also the bank says the only way they can send the money to you is by a money order so they would need your banking info for that". I told him that sounded strange and he could just mail a check. He replied with "i could but do you trust a $9,000 cheque in the mail? when i go to the bank i can call you and get you guys to talk if need be".

Anytime someone offers to pay with a money order and/or asks for our banking info is a huge red flag. At the same time he has gone to the trouble of sending me EPS files, changing designs on his order, making ink color adjustments, etc. The order is for a clothing line that looks like is just getting started, so $9000 seems like a lot of money for someone to drop on their first apparel order for a clothing line. He has an instagram for the brand, which has followers and people commenting/liking, and the people commenting and liking aren't foreign accounts. All the products on his instagram are phone cases and one sweatshirt that he printed up a couple of months ago. I can't find much about this person online other than the instagram and twitter account.

So what do you think, scam or real order?

[Frog]

royster, a longtime member here is in BC. Maybe with luck, so is your guy and royster may have heard of him.

[Jepaul]

BS here.

??

While going back and forth today he says "also the bank says the only way they can send the money to you is by a money order so they would need your banking info for that". I told him that sounded strange and he could just mail a check. He replied with "i could but do you trust a $9,000 cheque in the mail?

??

You don?t need banking information to get a money order.  Money orders are done just like checks and you can get them at the post office, Walmart, your bank, and many other places. He would simply get a money order made out to you or your business name and then mail it to you.

A money order is completely different than wiring instructions.  You ?Mail? a money order and you ?Wire? money.

There is no problem giving him your ?wiring instructions? which is completely different than giving someone your ?Routing and Account? information. (Never give anyone your routing or account information.

His bank takes your ?wire? information and sends you the money.  He can?t pull money or send your money somewhere else with your wiring information.  The wiring information is only for receiving money.

[rendered.co]

I agree. From the beginning it felt like a weird order and then it started to become more legit since he was sending order changes and EPS files, etc. Once I received that email my BS sensors went off again. Either he doesn't understand how money orders/wire transfers work, or it's a scam. I've never questioned myself so much about wether something is a scam or not.

[Frog]

I just started a new thread about verifying payments as legit in the Growing a Business section. I may move this thread there eventually as well.
http://www.theshirtboard.com/index.php?board=10.0
Rendered, sorry that this is one of the sections to which you don't yet have access (4 more posts)

[ebscreen]

I'd trust a check in the mail a lot more than a money order.

A check can be cancelled, a money order is essentially cash.

So yeah, likely scam.

[ffokazak]

Even in he got the banking info its on every cheque you have ever put out there correct?

Say he gets the banking info ( Transit # , account #,, etc) Im curious on to what a scammer can do with that anyways...

Surely he cant call the bank and transfer your money out...

[rendered.co]

He said he's going to pay with a credit card now, so we'll see how that works out. We have a pretty thorough credit card processing company so at least I'll get to see what name is on the card, etc.

[royster13]

Sounds strange to me.....Especially seeing how there is an 18% duty on most textiles coming into Canada....

Does the client exist?.....By that do they have a web presence?....Do they have a BC PST registration #?.....Do they have a physical location?...Pretty much every "random" customer that comes my way can be found by various search methods....If not, probably a "scammer"....

[lancasterprinthouse]

Had someone text me today about an order. Everything seemed ok besides the fact that they were only texting. Sent artwork the via email. Sized correctly, vector and all that.

Then the scam started. Said they were supplying shirts and their ?shipping agent? wouldn?t release the shirts without payment. Asked if they could add the shirts to the bill from me and then I pay the shipper via wire transfer. They wanted to pay via CC so naturally we could all guess how this would have went. I pay their ?shipping agent? and then they mark the credit card charge as fraudulent.

Be safe out there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[3Deep]

Sometimes with us we are a small company and I just about know the size of orders we get and what money is spent with us, so if money and order size goes above normal I check stuff out.  Can't say what large companies do because they might be use to large accounts every day, but for me as a smaller company someone wants to drop a  15k order I'm checking it out

[Sbrem]

transferring money is pretty straight ahead, it's been going on for a really long time. This guy is plainly not legit, because he's trying to step outside of conventional practices. Tell him to drive down with the cash. "do you trust a $9,000.00 check in the mail?" Well yes, why not? If it doesn't arrive, it can't be deposited or cashed. A bank would know better, though it happened once here that someone stole a check in the mail and somehow got it cashed at a bank. The bank paid the vendor back, and most likely fired that teller.

Steve

[cbjamel]

If its a Canadian check wont be good for aprox 2wks anyway. Have to go to fed's because the routing and stuff arent the same as ours. Get cash!

Shane