Fraudulent
Jewelry Orders Online

© by Ryan Cheng; all rights reserved

Fraudulent jewelry orders online can happen to anyone. If you're selling your work on the Internet, it's important to know what to watch out for.

Most fraud occurs during payment - in the form of bounced checks, stolen credit cards, or forged cashier's checks.

Athena Ring in garnet, sterling silver, and 14k gold
by Joolwe.com

For online jewelry sales, similar payment fraud happens more easily and frequently because the fraudsters are hidden behind their computer screens. The high value of jewelry merchandise also makes your online sales a desirable target.

But don't let fear stop you from doing business on the web. There are plenty of ways to detect and prevent fraudulent jewelry orders online.

Simply follow the steps below and you should be able to detect and stop 99% of the payment fraud.

1. Look especially closely at orders with expensive merchandise. To maximize return, scammers tend to order jewelry with high value.
2. Also watch for orders involving multiple quantities of the same item. Sometimes a fraudster gets lazy, and instead of looking for high value jewelry to buy, they simply order multiples of the one item.
3. Be wary of orders with urgent or next-day shipping. Online thieves like next-day shipping to get their hands on your jewelry as soon as possible.

   If you ship via UPS or FedEx, you may be able to stop delivery by giving them a call. But with USPS, once shipped, it might be too late.

White Crystal Greek Mystic Necklace
by Joolwe.com

1. Check the shipping and billing address of orders on Google Maps. With satellite view, you can see where the item is being shipped to.

   Most fraud-watch organizations recommend extra vigilence when dealing with orders from any of the countries with the highest fraud risk.

2. Call the phone number provided with the order. Scammers usually give out a bad phone number. Always call if you spot any suspicious pattern, and don't ship until you have talked to the purchaser.
3. Check the purchaser's IP address. Your payment gateway should provide the IP address of the purchaser for each order you receive. This number is a series of digits and periods representing a traceable address for the computer where the jewelry order was placed.

   There are many free IP checking services online such as SenderBase. (Google "IP checker" to find more of these services.)

   In the IP checker, enter the IP number of the possibly fraudulent jewelry order to discover the country where the order originated. Verify that the shipping address matches up with the billing / payment address.

   If you use PayPal for your payment processing, be sure to read through the PayPal Fraud Management Filters info.

Sterling silver dangle earrings
by Joolwe.com

While no fraud prevention is 100%, by following these steps, you should be able to eliminate 99% of the online fraud.