Electronic check fraud

I was hit with 4 electronic check chargebacks at plimus today. 2 were bounced due to insufficient funds on account and 2 due to wrong/unexisting account number.

I am thinking of contacting people who bought my product and demand they pay for the product and for chargeback cost.

Isn't it an offence issuing uncovered checks? Can someone explain what I could write to them? Could I tell them this is fraud and federal offence?

Thank you for your imput, reps will be given

 

It is fraud, but nobody cares unless you lost hundreds of thousands of $. Contacting them would be the best bet at recovering anything. The insufficient checks may be recoverable. I doubt there's much chance with the others, but I would try anyway.

In the future, make a policy that you don't ship / deliver goods until the checks clear the bank. Most areas allow you to charge a NSF fee. It's common for $20 - $100 in the US, but you need to check your local area for what you can charge.

 

Are you products tangible, Jason?
If it is, then there are plenty of follow up options. Otherwise, the choice narrows down significantly

 

Unless the amount is huge, the cost involved in litigation and other measures would make such move nonviable. People tend to always hide in a virtual world and this is the basic risk in doing business online. I guess... one just have to learn living with it!

Regards,

RightMan

 

My products are digital downloads. I think if I write an email to each of the peope with the right wording I might get something out of it and possible prevent this from happening to someone else in the future.

What exactly could I write? Is this a felony or not?

Thanks

 

Jason,
Since yours is a tangible product, it makes things slightly easier. Follow up questions

Question:
(i) Does it require your intervention to keep the program to continue working?
(ii) Do you have the means to terminate the item's functionality?
(iii) Did they sign, or acknowledge any forms in your site prior to download?
(iv) Are you aware where they are located?
(v) Do you still have means of contacting them?
(vi) Did you release the product before payment were cleared?

 

I always stay away from echeck payments dont give them product till you are not sure about clearance.

 

What countries were the buyers from?

 

yes this is important. which countries ?

 

Well i think they are scam, thus they knew what they are doing.

 

Why is this important? are there any statistics for check frauds?

 

You can write them your intention of initiating a legal action if they fail to reimburse you. If your buyers are newbie at this misadventure.. your writing would probably help you extract something.

Regards,

RightMan

 

Plimus should be doing an account # verification as part of the scrub. But, NSF they can't check for....It's simply the way the ACH system works...you can verify that the account is open, doesn't have a bad history, and even has funds in it. But since ACH is a batch system, the funds may or may not be in the account by the time it clears. So, you should wait until check clears before allowing the download.

All the best.

Tim
NationalACH

 

Hi, just thought I put my 2 sence into the discussion. I own several ecommerce websites, and I have been dealing with the issue of accepting online payments for years with both good and bad results. You can read my previous posts on this topic. One thing I know for a fact is that Plimus is a hard way to grow your business. I know because I have had them on one of my sites for 4 years. It cost almost 50 bucks to get started with them and waiting until the 15th of each month to get paid is a real drag. Infact in most cases I don't get to see the funds until the 18th of the month. If you have to deal with all that plus bad checks, then I'm sure you are not a happy camper.. What I would suggest is that if you really think checks are beneficial to your business, then I would restrict check payments on Plimus and use Green Payment Processing www.greenbyphone.com. Please be very careful when anyone pays by check and allow 7 business days before you allow for your products to be downloaded. The great thing about this is that "Green" will deposit the check into your account in 24 hours, and your bank has 3 days to determine if the check is good or not. So 7 business days is a safe bet.

Good luck to you.

Cheers....