Today it is not unusual to find that people have after-hours businesses to help make ends meet. A significant number of these people also make use of the Internet to sell their products. Here are a few guidelines to check that you are dealing with bona fide orders.

If you follow the correct procedure when selling merchandise over the Internet, your business will soon be thriving. You have to make sure that all sales are legal by checking the following:

    • Verify the delivery address. Countries like Nigeria, Romania, Macedonia, Belarus, Pakistan, Russia, Egypt and Malaysia are known for fraud
    • It is much safer to deliver items to the billing address than to the delivery address
    • Make sure that the postal code corresponds with the area specified on the order form
    • Watch out for customers that place big orders. Look out for people who, for example, order four CD-players at once
    • Be wary of orders where consumers stipulate that they want overnight or one-day delivery. This is usually the case in fraudulent orders.

If an order looks suspicious do the following:

    • Confirm with the person being billed that all the information is in order. Make sure that you do not insult the client by assuming that the order is fraudulent. Just say that you are verifying the information of the order to make sure that no problems arise when delivering the product. As a precaution, ask for the details of the bank that issued the credit card
    • Make sure that the billing address exists. Check that the address and the area code match each other.

When delivering your product, do the following:

    • Never deliver the product to a third party. Make sure that the cardholder receives the product
    • Use a reputable courier.