Richa Kapoor of Bellure Designs recounts how she was scammed at a recent art show by a well-dressed couple posing as honest customers – but who turned out to be fraud artists.
The transaction “left me with an uneasy feeling,” Richa says.
So she phoned her husband immediately and had him do some quick research on the woman who wrote the check.
A call to the woman’s bank revealed insufficient funds to cover the jewelry purchase – and although Richa has pursued this case through legal channels, she doubts she’ll ever see the jewelry or the money that’s owed to her.
In her article Check and Credit Card Fraud Prevention – What Jewelry Artists Should Know, Richa outlines three important tips for protecting yourself against fraudulent jewelry customers.
And one other thing to keep in mind:
As Richa mentioned, fraudulent jewelry purchases often just don’t “feel” quite right. If something about a customer or transaction somehow feels odd or makes you uneasy, there may be a good reason for it.
Your intuition is another tool that can go a long way toward fraud prevention.
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This happens more than any of us would like to admit. We face a particular new kind of criminal, the cyber scam artist. After 12 years of ecommerce, we have had to learn many new types of scams and variations of each and then figure out ways to combat them. In this fast paced automated business, fraud is a HUGE concern and can sometimes be a significant part of your “expense” column.